TOTP Rewind – the 90s | My memories of 90s chart music

TOTP 02 JUL 1999

We’re halfway through these BBC4 1999 TOTP repeats which means I’m officially in the home straight with this blog which will end with the 90s and there will be no TOTP Rewind the 2000s. Also coming to an end back in 1999 was my time working for Our Price. Having started with the company in October 1990, I now had less than a year left before I would leave. I recently posted a photo of myself taken outside the store in Altrincham around this time and with me in that photo was my manager Pete whom I’ve not referred to before. Pete came in to replace Scott who had been so important in my rehabilitation back into work after a significant amount of time out when I was struggling with my mental health. I’d not worked with Pete before so I was probably a bit concerned when Scott was moved on to the Piccadilly shop in Manchester. I shouldn’t have worried as Pete was great albeit in very different ways to Scott. He was an absolute dynamo, always busy doing something, probably because he was a sugar junkie – Pete would think nothing of having a packet of Tunnocks Teacakes for his lunch. He was also not the best observer of Health and Safety regulations. I recall doing an induction for a Xmas Temp and had literally just told them about never standing on a swivel chair to reach for anything high up and Pete came into the stockroom and reached for something high up on a swivel chair! I once locked him in the shop by mistake after taking both his and my keys home. This was before we all had mobile phones and so I got all the way home to Manchester where I found my answer machine full of messages from a stranded Pete asking me to come back and let him out. He took it in good humour though and we went to the pub afterwards to watch the footy. Pete would be my 14th and final manager before I left both Our Price and Manchester for a job in the Civil Service at York.

You’re not here for recollections about my work life though so let’s get to the music. There are only seven artists on tonight as opposed to the usual eight but having checked, that appears to be the original figure when first broadcast and not due to any revised editing decision. Gail Porter is in the host hot seat and we start with last week’s No 1. This practice of having the previous week’s chart topper raise the curtain on the following week’s show despite having been toppled from their throne was becoming a regular feature. Previously, we had S Club 7, this time it’s the Vengaboys with “Boom Boom Boom Boom”. I get that it was a method of combatting the extreme fluctuations of the very top of the charts otherwise these big selling hits would only get one TOTP appearance but it made for an odd spectacle for those of us who grew up in the 70s and 80s watching the show. We just get a repeat of the performance from seven days prior in this one and as such, I have nothing more to say about this absolute pile of crud.

Instead, I think I’ll comment on the profuse usage of the word ‘boom’ in pop and rock music because the Vengaboys sure weren’t the first to coin it. Going back to 1962 there was “Boom Boom” by legendary US blues artist John Lee Hooker whilst the 70s brought us The Boomtown Rats. Into the 80s, the word seemed to be attached to bands and songs that didn’t achieve the same level of success. “Iko Iko” hitmaker Natasha released “The Boom Boom Room” as the follow up but it failed to crack the Top 40 whilst the band Boom Boom Room never hit any higher than No 74 with “Here Comes The Man” despite releasing it twice. The 90s was…ahem…boom time for songs featuring “boom” in their titles. There’s “Boom Boom Boom” by The Outhere Brothers and “Boom! Shake The Room” by DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince both of which were No 1 records. Meanwhile, Apache Indian would score a Top 5 hit with “Boom Shack-A-Lak” in 1993. I’m sure there are more but I think I’ve proved my point. In fact, I think I’ve earned the right to one of these…

Almost two months (TWO MONTHS!) after we first saw Whitney Houston perform “My Love Is Your Love” on the show, we got to see her do it again this week or rather we were just shown a repeat of that initial appearance. Yes, that’s what the once monumentally important TOTP had become by 1999 – a show that would feed us repeats of performances we’d already seen weeks before. OK, that assessment doesn’t really tell the whole story. Presumably when Whitney and her team agreed to record an in person performance for the show, it came with certain conditions. It wasn’t worth her time to do just one song so two tracks were performed – her current single “It’s Not Right But It’s OK” and the follow up “My Love Is Your Love”. I’m pretty sure that was the case anyway. It makes sense. I recently posited a similar theory regarding Cher who I believe did two performances of her hit “All Or Nothing” in the same recording but with two different outfits on! I guess satisfying diva demands was deemed a fair price to pay to get the biggest names in music on the show.

Anyway, the long game strategy played by Whitney’s people paid off for both parties – they had a ready made performance for promotional purposes in the can for the release of “My Love Is Your Love” and TOTP had the exclusive of a studio appearance that they could show. However, why then was said appearance shown on the 14th May show weeks before it was available to buy in the shops? It must have been to plug the album which had been released the previous November surely? Or perhaps the release date of the single got put back? My guess is your guess.

Ah 1999, you really were a pile of shite weren’t you? Pointless, needless, inexplicable hit after hit cluttering up the charts. Hers another example. For some reason, The Three Amigos and their cover version of “Louie Louie” puts me in mind of The Wiseguys* whom we recently saw coming on like a turn of the millennium Blues Brothers with their single “Ooh La La”. Just like those berks, these jerks put the least amount of original thought that they could get away with into their hit. I mean like literally – they chose possibly the world’s most recorded song (2000 different versions at last estimate) and added a rap to it. That’s it pretty much. Such a poor idea was it that some weird visuals were required to sell it so we get the monochrome, 60s style backing dancers (a nod to the popularity of Austin Powers perhaps) and some sort of sci-fi costumes and and a bloke with a beard who I can’t tell if he’s covered in cobwebs or looks like he’s just come out of a cryogenic freezing facility (Austin Powers again). What utter charlatans (just like the characters from the 1986 comedy movie they were presumably named after).

*It turns out that The Wiseguys remixed one of the tracks on the “Louie Louie” single for The Three Amigos. My Spidey senses working well there.

Suede’s commercial peak was starting to decline by the end of the 90s. Although fourth album “Head Music” had followed “Coming Up” (and before that their eponymous debut album) to the top of the charts, it had only sold a third of its predecessor’s copies. Following suit were the singles released from “Head Music”. “She’s In Fashion” would end a run of six releases charting inside the Top 10 when it peaked at No 13. Subsequent singles taken from the album would not even make the Top 20. And yet “She’s In Fashion” is generally regarded as one of the band’s most accessible songs receiving more airplay than any of their previous singles had. It was championed by Radio 1’s Zoe Ball though possibly she saw it as tool for self promotion due to its opening lines:

“She’s the face on the radio, she’s the body on the morning show.”

Writer(s): Brett Lewis Anderson, Neil John Codling

That must be why my immediate association with the song is the broadcaster and presenter. Didn’t she try and make out that it was written about her? I can’t remember now. It’s too long ago. Enough of all that though, was it any good and why did it receive so much airplay? Well, yes it was, certainly compared to the rest of the junk in the charts. I’m guessing its airplay was down to its lighter, breezier sound that almost had a summery feel. Almost. It’s also quite repetitive for a Suede track which probably helped to lodge it in people’s brains and make it possibly one of their best known songs despite not being one of their biggest hits. Apparently the track was written and recorded at a time when Brett Anderson’s drug habit was at its worst but looking at him here, either he’d turned his life around by this point or the make up artist had done an amazing job on him.

Even in the dying light of the 90s, still the disease that blighted the musical landscape of that decade would not yield – yes, we still had time for yet another boyband. This lot were so lightweight that they’d have floated to the surface if chucked in the nearest canal wearing concrete shoes which is possibly a fate they deserved for the bilge they served up. Too harsh? Maybe but having to write about A1 is really trying my patience. A1 – even their name was awful, only beaten in the manky moniker stakes by Blue.

OK, so what was the story behind this shower? It was all down to someone called Tim Byrne who was one of the people involved in setting up Steps apparently. Paul Marrazzi had just missed out on being in that group but Byrne must have seen something in the pop hopeful and so decided to form another band with him in it. Auditions were held and a four piece put together. Presumably Byrne’s track record with Steps helped get A1 a record deal and hey presto!…their debut single “Be The First To Believe” was suddenly in the Top 10 despite sounding like a piss weak version of Steps if such a thing were possible. Surely this lot were destined for just the 15 minutes of fame but no; they would rack up 11 hit singles including (and this is truly mind boggling) two No 1s! One was a cover version of A-ha’s “Take On Me” which I can only describe as depressing.

They would split in 2002 with the obligatory solo careers pursued but would reunite in 2009 for a series of live shows and a persistent dalliance with Norway and the Eurovision Song Contest (member Christian Ingebrigtsen is Norwegian). In 2014 they appeared in that last scraping of the fame barrel known as The Big Reunion alongside the aforementioned Blue, Five, 911, Adam Rickitt etc. When their 20 years anniversary came around in 2019, Marrazzi rejoined for some live shows and the band released some non album singles. They are still together to this day which see seems incredible to me for a band that had so little to offer.

P.S. When I was at secondary school, we had a grading system that was a combination of letters and numbers with the former referring to your level of achievement in a particular subject and the latter the amount of effort you put in. A1 was therefore the highest you could be awarded and you were generally considered a swot if you received that mark. The coolest grade was A5 – you were naturally clever but couldn’t give a toss about applying yourself. In that system, A1 the band should surely have been an E1 – desperate to do well but intrinsically hopeless. And the recipient of the A5 grade in boyband world? I don’t know, East 17 maybe?

Here’s a question – was I already aware of Jennifer Lopez as an actress before she turned her hand to singing or was her debut single “If You Had My Love” my first introduction to her? Let’s have a look. Which films had she been in up to this point?

*checks her filmography*

Nothing I’d seen then nor indeed since I don’t think. Out Of Sight alongside George Clooney seemed to have been her highest box office hit by this point. The truth is that it’s hard to recall our first awarenesses of huge public figures isn’t it? It’s difficult to pinpoint our consciousness in these matters as our memory shifts and re-edits what we knew and when. I think the answer is probably that I knew of her as an actress but hadn’t engaged with her work on any meaningful level until I had to as I was selling her CDs as part of my job at Our Price. Despite this, I’d be hard pushed to name any of her songs (save maybe “Jenny From The Block”) and there’s plenty to choose from – she’s released nine studio albums and 67 singles! I had no idea! As mentioned earlier, “If You Had My Love” was the first of those 67 and it hit immediately going to No 1 in America and No 4 over here. As a Latin-infused, R&B number, it was never going to do much for me but even my ‘pop’ ear (Popeye’s brother) could identify that it was a very serviceable track competently delivered. Parent album “On The 6” would sell 300,000 copies in the UK and 10 times that amount in the US. A superstar was born and she would go by the name of J-Lo. Well, it was snappier than Jenny From The Block I guess.

It’s yet another different No 1 this time from ATB who was German DJ André Tanneberger. Now, if you look at the chart for 6th to the 12th June 1999, you’ll find two separate entries for “9PM (Till I Come)” – one at No 97 and one at No 78. How could this be and how did the track get to No 1 from these lowly positions? Well, it was all down to imports. The release at No 96 was the Australian import and No 78 position was occupied by the German import. Both singles were released on different labels and therefore circumvented chart rules that didn’t allow the same track to occupy separate chart positions. Neither would get higher than No 47 in the charts. Now that might sound like I’m being sniffy but actually a peak of No 47 for an imported single was very respectable and showed a true demand for the track that had initially been released by Ministry of Sound three months earlier when it had peaked at No 68. Confusing isn’t it? Presumably that Ministry of Sound release didn’t have much promotion behind it or it was a limited pressing as the track remained popular in clubland thereby necessitating those import copies being brought into the country to satisfy demand. In the face of this, Ministry of Sound gave it another go, this time aligned with Summer and the Ibiza season and a No 1 was assured. As I wasn’t frequenting the nightclubs of Ibiza in 1999 (nor anywhere actually being in my 30s at this point), this trance track based around a synthesised slide guitar riff, to paraphrase Midge Ure, meant nothing to me.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Vengaboys	Bom Boom Boom Boom	Of course not
2	Whitney Houston	My Love Is Your Love	Nope
3	The Three Amigos	Louie Louie	Never
4	Suede	She’s In Fashion	Decent tune but no
5	A1	Be The First To Believe	No, it was last
6	Jennifer Lopez	If You Had My Love	Nah
7	ATB	9PM (Till I Come)	And no

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002t695/top-of-the-pops-02071999

TOTP 25 JUN 1999

Posted on 4 Days Ago by 80stastic

It’s Glastonbury time again in these TOTP repeats with the host of this show – Gail Porter – making reference to it in her opening intro. In fact, the festival began on the very same day that this TOTP aired with REM being the headliners on the Friday night followed by Manic Street Preachers on the Saturday and Skunk Anansie closing the whole shebang on the Sunday night. Unlike in previous years, the weather was glorious with a sun drenched three days making the £150,000 spent on downpour precautions redundant. As this is the Glastonbury TOTP Rewind post, it’s that time again when I see if any of the acts on this particular episode ever got to play the festival…

We start with last week’s No 1 “Bring It All Back” by S Club 7 which has dropped to No 2. It was the first of four chart toppers for the group though checking their discography, I’m surprised at the gaps between the first one and the other three. I would have presumed all their first few singles went to No 1 but not so. Their second single to achieve that feat came 18 months later in December 2000 with “Never Had A Dream Come True” which was followed by two more successive No 1s in “Don’t Stop Movin’” in May 2001 and “Have You Ever” in December of the same year. That means that those hits you immediately associate with S Club 7 like “S Club Party” and “Reach” didn’t actually make it to the top which I’m quite shocked by. I mean, I say ‘shocked’ but I probably should say ‘mildly surprised’. The word ‘shocked’ shows a level of engagement in the group which I just don’t have. And yet, their story of success, decline, tragedy and redemption really would make a good film or a decent biopic at least.

Did they ever play Glastonbury? No, they never had that particular dream come true despite expressing a desire to do so following their 25th anniversary reunion announcement in 2023.

Some A grade bullshit from executive producer Chris Cowey next as he recycles a performance by Jamiroquai from three weeks ago for their hit “Canned Heat” which is currently languishing at No 21 in this week’s Top 40 having consistently fallen down the chart from its No 4 debut peak. How has he the brass neck to do this? Easy, just repackage the appearance as being shown to mark the band being at No 1 in the album chart with “Synkronized” (check out the caption graphic) even though there was no regular album chart feature at this point. I get that there were no records going up the charts at all that week but there were seven new entries into the Top 40 that could have been shown instead that weren’t (albeit in the lower reaches of the chart). This stinks of fudging the issue with some disdain for the show’s audience thrown in for good measure.

Did they ever play Glastonbury? Yes. In 1993 on the NME stage and the Pyramid stage in 1995.

There were many things to dislike about the fag end of the 90s charts but one which irked me and confused me in equal measure was the UK’s adoption of US boybands. Didn’t we have enough of our own to contend with?! Did we really need the likes of the Backstreet Boys and this lot – NSYNC – clogging up our Top 40 as well?! I’m sorry, I know all the stats and figures will tell me about how big they were sales wise but they were both terrible. Awful songs, whiny vocals and they weren’t even good looking (Justin Timberlake definitely had problem hair) so how do you explain their popularity then? On top of all that, they were almost interchangeable. Take this hit for example. “Tearin’ Up My Heart” could easily have been a Backstreet Boys song. In fact, if you look at the latter’s discography, they released numerous singles about the ‘heart’.

“I’ll Never Break Your Heart”
“Quit Playing Games (with My Heart)”
“Shape Of My Heart”
“Straight Through My Heart”
“Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”

Come on! It was money for old rope territory. Just to put the final QED touches to my point, “Tearin’ Up My Heart” was originally pitched to the Backstreet Boys to record but NSYNC ended up doing it. Presumably they were with the same record company but I don’t care enough to check. Be gone with you both!

Did they ever play Glastonbury? No, obviously.

Talking of record companies, clearly Britney Spears’ couldn’t wait any longer to release her follow up to “…Baby One More Time” despite the fact that the monster hit was still at No 31 in the UK Top 40 as “Sometimes” rocketed into the charts at No 3. However, what a disappointment it was compared to its predecessor. A mid-tempo ballad was perhaps the obvious choice but it was also predictable (even down to its key change) and when the song was as weak as “Sometimes” then it couldn’t hope to climb as high as her debut. It didn’t help that Britney couldn’t quite reach the notes to sing it but a hit is a hit and it did a job of consolidation especially over here though it would stall at No 21 in America. A return to the “…Baby One More Time” formula would be sought out for subsequent releases on tracks like “(You Drive Me) Crazy” and “Oops!…I Did It Again”. All of those tracks were written and produced by Swede Max Martin who also supplied songs for the aforementioned Backstreet Boys and NSYNC but, perhaps tellingly, “Sometimes” wasn’t*. Martin would go on to write and produce material for Taylor Swift drawing a nice line between female singer superstars from different eras.

*”Sometimes” was written by another Swede in Jörgen Elofsson who would also work with Westlife. Oh God, it was like a Scandinavian version of Stock, Aitken and Waterman!

Did they ever play Glastonbury? No although there were heavy rumours that she would make a surprise appearance during Elton John’s headline set in 2023 following their collaboration on “Hold Me Closer”. The rumours proved to be false.

Think of American pop-punk bands and who comes to mind? Sum 41? Blink-182? Fountains Of Wayne? Third Eye Blind? Weezer? Yep, all good examples but how about Lit? I’d certainly forgotten them (if I even knew them in the first place) but here they are on TOTP with their biggest hit “Own Worst Enemy”. It does sound kind of familiar or maybe I’m just confusing it with all those other bands mentioned above. My fuzzy recall of it though seems to be out of step with the rest of the world though as, according to Wikipedia, it is a huge karaoke favourite and is described in American Songwriter magazine as being:

“among the most broadcasted, karaoked, and covered songs in music history.”

Crone, Madeline (June 1, 2020). “Behind the song: Lit “My Own Worse Enemy”American Songwriter

Wow! Really?! Well it beats “Angels” by Robbie Williams I guess. Lit are still together based around the nucleus of the Popoff brothers Jeremy and A. Jay with their last album being released in 2022.

Did they ever play Glastonbury? That would be a no.

Following ex-EastEnders star Martine McCutcheon into the charts this year was, as host Gail Porter points out, someone from the ‘other side’ meaning from ITV’s Coronation Street. Adam Rickitt had become a pin up before his attempt at pop stardom with his youthful good looks and ripped abdomen building him a fanbase among the nation’s female teenage population via his portrayal of Nick Tilsley. With that following in place, the move into music was a no-brainer and lo, a Top 5 hit was secured with his debut single “I Breathe Again”. Unlike Martine’s No 1 song “Perfect Moment” to which the general public’s reaction was along the lines of “it’s not bad is it?”, Adam’s effort was as anonymous as it was obvious. A Hi-NRG dance track with a deliberately engineered breathy singing style that required very little in the way of vocal chops from Rickitt, it would possibly have sunk without trace without his six pack and that video via which to display them. Featuring a naked Adam in a booth in a lab, it was literally a very steamy promo. We don’t get to see that here though as it was possibly too risqué for the BBC censors. Instead, we get this so obviously mimed performance in which Rickitt actually does very little apart from some upper torso posturing. Seriously, his feet hardly move. There’s a lot of smoke and mirrors going on with his backing dancers doing their best to make him look like he’s even vaguely co-ordinated. On top of everything, he can’t even mine convincingly.

Adam would have two further UK Top 40 hits though surely only his Mum and his superfans (bordering on stalkers) can remember them. He released just the one album called “Good Times” which failed to chart in any meaningful way but here’s the thing – he was signed to a six album deal. WHY?! I may be looking at this all wrong and that this was/is an industry standard practice but who in their right mind thought that Adam Rickitt would last long enough as a pop star to be able to sell SIX albums?! However, Adam did make a comeback 15 years later as part of the ITV manufactured pop group 5th Story who were put together to promote the second series of The Big Reunion. Who were his band mates? Only some of the biggest names in pop! No, of course they weren’t. It was a collection of desperate, famous for 15 minutes chancers including someone from Blazin’ Squad, Kavana and Dane Bowers from Another Level who would light his own farts live on stage if he thought it would keep him in the limelight. Amazingly, according to Wikipedia, 5th Story did play a live gig at the Hammersmith Apollo (presumably as part of The Big Reunion TV show). I can’t believe that the ticket touts were busy for that one.

Did they ever play Glastonbury? I asked AI if Adam Rickitt had ever played the festival and it replied yes in 2023 on the Avalon stage. Flabbergasted, I double checked and it seems it had confused Adam with Will Young. And we’re all worried about AI taking our jobs off us!

If I asked you to name a cover version of Cameo’s “Word Up”, would you immediately turn to Gun’s rock workout of the track or would choose this…well, whatever this is by Mel B, sorry Mel G*? After rather unexpectedly (in my humble opinion) topping the charts with her first single outside of the Spice Girls – her collaboration with Missy Elliott on “I Want You Back” – Mel’s second attempt was recorded as part of the soundtrack to the film Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. However, unlike Madonna’s “Beautiful Stranger” also from that soundtrack which just missed the top spot, “Word Up” would peak at a presumably disappointing for all concerned No 13. That’s probably more than it deserved (again, in my humble opinion) with Mel’s rendition not retaining any of the original’s spark and bite and instead delivering a lacklustre version that even has the audacity to include that horrible ‘I’ve got a little something for you’ sample that was everywhere around the mid point of the 90s. Gun’s take on it was infinitely better to my ears.

Then there’s Mel’s performance here which she conducts whilst sat down on some sort of throne with just two backing dancers for company. What was that about? Did she have a Dave Grohl style injury that restricted her movements? And why was she made up to look like an extra from a Mad Max movie? Was she channeling her inner Tina Turner? At least she didn’t try to recreate the black and white animated promo video for this performance which was very creepy and dark with sexually suggestive material in it. So ‘scary’ (ahem) was it seemed to be that they had to make another video for the track with Mel wearing a sci-fi style metallic costume with what appeared to be bits of Meccano attached to it.

*”Word Up” would be the only single released under the Mel G moniker after Brown’s marriage to dancer Jimmy Gulzar proved to be short lived. Her insistence on changing it in the first place must have caused a few headaches at her record label.

Did they ever play Glastonbury? Despite persistent rumours, Mel B has never played Glastonbury either as a solo artist or as part of the Spice Girls. Mel C, however, played a DJ set there in 2022 and with her own band in 2023.

Though it was never really in doubt, it’s now officially confirmed – chart music in 1999 was utter shite. How can you arrive at any other conclusion when you have tripe like “Boom Boom Boom Boom” by Vengaboys at No 1?! I mean, it’s barely music. It’s more like a demented nursery rhyme. Who was buying this? Pre-school kids? No, it must have been adults as I would no doubt have sold lots of the single as I was working for Our Price at the time and I don’t remember a bunch of five year olds forming an orderly queue to purchase the single. As for their performance here, they look and sound like a hybrid of 2 Unlimited and The Village People. What on earth was happening?

Did they ever play Glastonbury? Hell no!

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	S Club 7	Bring It All Back	Nope
2	Jamiroquai	Canned Heat	Negative
3	NSYNC	Tearin’ Up My Heart	Of course not
4	Britney Spears	Sometimes	Nah
5	Lit	Own Worst Enemy	I did not
6	Adam Rickitt	I Breathe Again	I’d rather hold my breath forever
7	Mel B/G	Word Up	No
8	Vengaboys	Boom Boom Boom Boom	NEVER EVER!

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002t693/top-of-the-pops-25061999

TOTP 18 JUN 1999

Posted on 6 Days Ago by 80stastic

I’ve just checked and this is the 750th TOTP Rewind post! Yes, over both the 80s and 90s sites, the combined number of posts has reached 750. I couldn’t have believed I’d get anywhere near that number when I started this nine years ago. In fairness, I couldn’t have imagined keeping this up for nine years but here I am. However, all good things (and distinctly average ones) must come to an end and I’m declaring when I get to the end of the 1999 BBC4 repeats. As Jude Law says in that Uber Eats ad – “It’s exhausting!”. As such I don’t think I’ll quite make the 800 milestone post so I’m celebrating this one. Let’s hope there are some suitable performances on this TOTP show to commemorate this historic post…

Our host is Jamie Theakston (again!) and we start with…oh no…this can’t be right! Why were The Wiseguys back in the show with “Ooh La La”? After debuting at No 2 a fortnight previously, it began a constant descent down the charts going to No 5 and then No 9 in this particular week. That decline was never reversed once. To show it again was just nonsensical. Had it been kicking around the Top 5 for weeks on end or gone back up the charts at some point then maybe I could have understood another airing but this just defies logic. Presumably the final decision on this came from executive producer Chris Cowey – the definitive opposite of a wise guy.

Hmm. This 750th post hasn’t started well and now it’s taken an even bigger turn for the worse. A definite nosedive in quality. It’s only bloody Shania Twain with “That Don’t Impress Me Much”. This was the third time on the show for this one and as much as it annoys me, it had spent three weeks at No 2 and two at No 4 since its debut appearance so Chris Cowey could make a decent stab at defending making room for it in the running order again. I really can’t be arsed to vent about this one anymore so I’ll just ask the question of why Shania had the actor, presenter and writer Stephen Mangan playing bass for her in this performance? Seriously, complete doppelgänger. Even if it was him, big deal. Okay, so you’re Stephen Mangan…that don’t impress me much.

Finally a new song which was also the final single release of the 90s for one of the biggest artists on the planet (at the time). I always thought that “Beautiful Stranger” was a curious Madonna hit. Maybe it’s because it was a one-off release being part of a movie soundtrack rather than a Madge studio album that added to that feeling. Or maybe it’s that it sounds like it could so easily have been included on her last album “Ray Of Light” but wasn’t. Or maybe it’s the peculiar song structure it has where it seems to build to a payoff chorus but we never really get one but just a rather flat “Da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da-dum” refrain. Or maybe it’s just that I never got the appeal of the whole Austin Powers thing which “Beautiful Stranger” was a part of being the lead single from the soundtrack of the second film in the franchise – Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. Seriously though, it can’t be just me that doesn’t get the humour of that character surely? Even the title of the film is completely puerile. I get it’s meant to be satirical, sending up the whole James Bond phenomenon and TV spy series like Jason King but I just find the Austin Powers character intensely stupid and annoying. All that sexual innuendo and those inane catchphrases just leave me cold. Maybe it’s Mike Myers himself I just can’t be doing with as I never found Wayne’s World that humorous either.

Anyway, back to Madonna and “Beautiful Stranger” and it’s no wonder that it sounds like it could have been included the “Ray Of Light” album as it was written and produced with William Orbit who was also Madonna’s collaborative partner for said album. I’m guessing that the 60s styles and cultural references within the film also influenced the sound of the track which delivers a pop song with psychedelic leanings and an almost ethereal quality. It’s not bad but it’s just doesn’t have much substance to it. In various ‘Madonna’s Best Singles’ polls, whilst it appears in the rankings, it’s mostly a pretty lowly position (e.g. in March 2023, Billboard ranked the song as Madonna’s 88th greatest ever).

As for the video, it’s obviously based around the portrayal of the Austin Powers character with him fantasising about scenarios of him and Madonna together but there’s not a lot to it compared to some of the singer’s iconic promos from her past (“Like A Virgin”, “Like A Prayer”, “Vogue” etc). We do get a little bit extra with Madge giving us a personal intro nicely woven into the scene where Powers receives a message from his boss Basil Exposition via a screen in his car. It’s a nice touch but Madonna performing the track in the TOTP studio would have been a much bigger coup. Ultimately, “Beautiful Stranger” would lose out on another UK No 1 to a bunch of British kids with an insanely catchy pure pop number and a hit TV show. The times they were-a-changin’.

Oh come on! This is meant to be a celebratory, milestone post and the artists in this TOTP are making a mockery of it and none more so than this lot! Of all the shit that these 1999 repeats have flung at us so far, surely Cartoons stink the most? Did we just accept this crap at the time? We should have been out on the streets protesting shouldn’t we?! How do we explain this to our children?! Watching them perform “DooDah” is like suddenly finding yourself in an alternate universe where all the norms and practices of pop music have been replaced by a honking clown car. Actually, it’s the musical equivalent of the Trump administration. Their grotesque, oversized wigs make that comparison hold even more water.

For the record, “DooDah” was clearly based on the 1850 folk song “Camptown Races” by American composer Stephen Foster. Introduced into the mainstream by blackface troupe Christy’s Minstrels, it was used as the centrepiece of this excellent satirical scene from Blazing Saddles to lampoon its origin.

P.S. Blazing Saddles also gives us the most accurate description of what is going on in the White House currently…

Tatyana Ali’s pop career was a bit blink-and-you’ll-miss-it. Three singles in and this was already her final hit. “Everytime” was the smallest of them peaking at No 20. Is it coincidence that it was the first that didn’t seem to have anything to do with Will Smith? “Boy You Knock Me Out” featured a rap from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air whilst her first – “Daydreamin’” – came with a personal endorsement from Smith who did a specially recorded intro for Ali’s debut performance on TOTP. Maybe it didn’t perform as well as its predecessors because it wasn’t that good? It’s very pedestrian never really getting out of first gear. Her album “Kiss The Sky” also failed to sell in huge quantities making little impression on the US or UK charts which would lead to her being dropped by her label by the end of the year. Maybe Ali’s decision to tour with the Backstreet Boys as referenced in Jamie Theakston’s intro wasn’t the right choice after all?

Right, what’s going on here then? Well yes, obviously it’s Cher performing her single “All Or Nothing” for the second week on the spin but there’s something odd occurring that I’ve noticed. Cher has different hair and a different costume from what she was sporting seven days prior but her backing dancers appear to be exactly the same people wearing exactly the same outfits from the last show. Could it be that Cher recorded two performances back to back but did a whole wardrobe and wig change in between to fool us into thinking they were recorded a week apart? I haven’t gone completely forensic by trying to identify if the studio audience is the same but in both appearances, Jamie Theakston is not there in person to do his intro, rather there is a cutaway to clearly prerecorded footage. If I’m right, why would all concerned in this have done it? Would there have been protests outside the BBC if they’d just reshown the first performance? I think not. If the population couldn’t rouse itself to take to the streets about Cartoons then surely there was no chance of any push back against this? Mark it down as another weird happening during the Chris Cowey era.

There’s more strangeness now as we get some unusual symmetry between the next artist and one that we saw earlier. When I said Tatyana Ali had a brief career, I guess you could say the same about Lauryn Hill, in terms of their discographies anyway. One album and three singles lifted from it was the same for both singers with said singles achieving very similar chart peaks:

Tatyana Ali – No 6 – No 3 – No 20
Lauryn Hill – No 3 – No 4 – No 20

Those No 20 singles even had similar titles. For Tatyana it was “Everytime” and for Lauryn we had “Everything Is Everything”. Despite its moderate UK chart performance, it was well received by the music press and was nominated for a Grammy and a Soul Train Lady Of Soul award. Both Ali and Hill’s music careers would come to a halt as the new millennium dawned; the former as mentioned earlier after being dropped by her label and the latter because she became disillusioned with the trappings of fame and sought solace in religion, attending bible study classes five days a week. Both would also have acting careers alongside their music ones with Tatyana auditioning (unsuccessfully) for Sister Act 2: Back In The Habit which Lauryn starred in. Everything is everything indeed.

We have another new No 1 and it’s from a group who were pure, unadulterated pop. S Club 7 had already been given TOTP exposure six weeks prior to the release of their debut single “Bring It All Back” so they had a very long run up to topping the chart at the first attempt. Not only that but they’d appeared briefly on last week’s show for a ten seconds interview with Jamie Theakston when he basically said “It’s you or Madonna for No 1 next week” to which one of them (Jon?) replied that they were taking nothing for granted because Madge was the Queen of Pop or something like that. I don’t recall Theakston saying he thought S Club 7 would definitely win out as he says he predicted in this intro. Maybe he said it on his Radio 1 show. Anyway, that first appearance was a promo video but this time see get the group hyper-jigging about in the studio. Although Jo O’Meara would be the designated lead vocalist on most of their hits, all four of the girls get a go at singing out front whilst the boys are offered some backing vocals spotlight. Look, we’re going to see this one twice more in these BBC4 repeats so I think I’ll leave it there for now.

It wasn’t quite the line up I’d hoped for to celebrate my 750th post but then again, what did I expect from TOTP in 1999?

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	The Wiseguys	Ooh La La	Get to f**k!
2	Shania Twain	That Don’t Impress Me Much	Heavens no!
3	Madonna	Beautiful Stranger	No
4	Cartoons	DooDah	Seriously?! Of course not
5	Tatyana Ali	Everytime	Negative
6	Cher	All Or Nothing	Nope
7	Lauryn Hill	Everything Is Everything	I did not
8	S Club 7	Bring It All Back	Nah

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002sw9g/top-of-the-pops-18061999

TOTP 11 JUN 1999

Posted on 11 Days Ago by 80stastic

After a rare, half decent show last week, could we be about to begin a run of better hits and performances? Well, I don’t know about that but what I am certain of is that seven of the eight songs on this one we haven’t seen before. However, we start with an ex-No 1 from a month ago which is back on the show because…? Because “I Want It That Way” by the Backstreet Boys had gone back up from No 9 to No 7. As Peter Crouch might say, “Big Deal!”. What’s that? It was a big deal? What because it sold 3 million copies in the US, because it was No 1 in just about every territory on the planet and because it was the 15th biggest selling boyband single of the 1990s in the UK selling 423,300 copies? Because of those things? Yeah, I don’t care. Big deal. NEXT!

In the late 90s mini-movement that was instrument playing all girl groups, after Hepburn and before Thunderbugs came 21st Century Girls. Though they had a name that suggested forthcoming longevity, this lot really were a case of blink and you’ll miss them. They were the protégés of music mogul Simon Fuller whose influence on the industry, though substantial, would become ever more pervasive in the years that followed. After being infamously sacked as the manager of the Spice Girls, he’d turned his attention to a Monkees-esque project for the 90s in S Club 7 but still had time to launch another all girl group. And this lot really were girls aged between 14 and 16 at the time that their debut single – also called “21st Century Girls” – hit the charts. Hailing from Dudley in the West Midlands, they’d formed a band st school and were spotted by a talent scout for Ian Allen’s Creative Management company. Allen managed Next of Kin who’d had a No 13 hit with “24 Hours From You” in 1999 so he had a track record for spotting young potential and getting them into the charts. He would duly do the same with 21st Century Girls but only after he’d given their demo CD to Fuller who immediately signed the group to his 19 Recordings label.

“I wanted something different – an antidote to all that is sterile and artificial about the music scene. I’m on a mission to take this band, which is pure and unadulterated and make them the biggest thing ever.”

Fulton, Rick; Daily Record (Glasgow, Scotland); April 23, 1999.

Hmm. Methinks he doth protest too much especially as Fuller proceeded to spend thousands to promote his “pure and unadulterated” group, a saturation project that resulted in a No 16 charting debut single and an appearance on TOTP. Was that an acceptable return on Fuller’s investment? Possibly not but these were literally just kids we’re talking about – the weight of responsibility to succeed was completely unreasonable. Indeed, Fuller was on record as saying that 21st Century Girls would be bigger than the Spice Girls – strike unreasonable and replace it with intolerable. Then there’s the music itself. In its favour, it didn’t sound much like Fuller’s former charges what with their influences were Green Day and Garbage. In the debit column, it wasn’t very good nor original. Their song was full of forced raucousness and naive, clunky lyrics* with a sound that was a melting pot of Republica, Transvision Vamp and Shampoo. It was meant to be a heady brew but it ended up being a concoction that was flavourless.

*If they wrote them, their age is a defence. If they were written for them, I guess it was part of their image but still.

They would not release another single in the UK presumably because Fuller lost interest (and the fact that S Club 7 took off) though a follow up and album were made available in Japan where the aforementioned Shampoo had been similarly massive. And so ended the tale of 21st Century Girls who never even made it out of the 20th century.

When I think about the film Notting Hill, or more specifically the music from it, I think of Elvis Costello’s version of “She” or Ronan Keating’s take on “When You Say Nothing At All”. At a push, maybe “Gimme Some Lovin’” by Spencer Davis Group which soundtracks the car scene as Hugh Grant’s character tries to get to a press conference at the Savoy Hotel. Or even “Ain’t No Sunshine” by Bill Withers which plays as the passing of time scene after Julia Roberts’ character has left London. At no point would my mind have turned to “From The Heart” by Another Level. Is it even in the film?

“Checks the internet*

Just as I thought; it doesn’t appear as a prominent background song during a main dialogue scene during the whole movie. Apparently, it features over the credits at some point but that must be well into them as “When You Say Nothing At All” plays at the end of the movie. Having said all of that, I don’t think Wet Wet Wet’s cover of “Love Is All Around” is heard in Four Weddings And A Funeral (which Notting Hill was a sequel to just about) until the credits have long since stated rolling. Anyway, my point is that I don’t recall Another Level’s contribution to the Notting Hill soundtrack at all and it’s one of those films I tend to watch if I happen upon it while channel hopping so I know it pretty well. Plus, we must have played the soundtrack in the Our Price where I was working a few times at least seeing as it went platinum in the UK. Punters in America who did buy the album however, got a slightly different track listing which omitted “In Our Lifetime” by Texas and instead included “No Matter What” by Boyzone. Why? Good question. That track doesn’t feature in the film at all what with it being from the soundtrack to the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Whistle Down The Wind. What gives? AI tells me that the song was used in the promotion of Notting Hill in America with an alternate version of the song’s music video produced specifically featuring clips of Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant interspersed with the band. That still doesn’t explain why? What was the association? I don’t get it. What’s that? Ronan Keating is the link? That’s it?! Nah, I’m not having it. Pure nonsense. Eh? What about Another Level’s song? I repeat, I’m not having it. Pure nonsense.

The return of The Chemical Brothers next who were hoping to replicate the success of their previous No 1 hits “Setting Sun” and “Block Rockin’ Beats” from ‘96 and ‘97 respectively. They came close with “Hey Boy Hey Girl” which was the lead single from third album “Surrender”. This was, I believe, what was known as a ‘bangin’ tune’. With its distinctive, repeated lyric and insistent, almost alarm-like back beat, you just couldn’t ignore this one. Oh yeah, that lyric. I’ve never noticed this before but the order of the single’s title is reversed in the words spoken on the track. Look…

“Hey girls Hey boys

Superstar DJs Here we go”

Writer(s): Richard Lee Fowler, Charles Pettiford, Gregory Carlton Wigfall, Edmund John Simons, Jerry Bloodrock, Thomas Owen Mostyn Rowlands, Celita Evans

I wonder why that was? I don’t think it makes too much difference in the way that it scans. As for the “superstar DJs” line, that always reminds me of the staff rota at the Our Price store I was working in when this single was out. Why? This is really niche and probably of no interest to anyone else reading this but it is my blog so…for my own personal amusement when compiling the weekly staff rota of who was in and when, sometimes I would allocate nicknames to my colleagues. So Suzanne was Skipper (can’t remember why), Lisa was Looby-Loo (from Andy Pandy – again no idea why) and then there was a guy called Richard who only worked on a Saturday but who loved his dance music so he was…of course…Superstar DJ. Look, I did warn you that this anecdote wouldn’t be interesting to anyone else!

What was interesting though was the video that gets shown here. Starting with the story of a girl on a school trip to the Natural History Museum who fractures her arm, it follows her into being an adult and going to a nightclub. Dominant throughout the promo is the imagery of all the human beings she encounters as being reduced to just bones, literally skeletons. Again I ask, what was that all about? A tribute to the climatic scene in 1963 movie Jason And The Argonauts when the titular heroes have to fight seven armed skeletons – ‘the children of the Hydra’s teeth’?

The version shown on TOTP, as hinted at by host Jamie Theakston, is heavily edited with a scene of a couple having sex in a nightclub toilet both in the flesh and as skeletons removed. Having seen the full version, there was no way that was getting past the censors. Quite what the idea behind the cutback shots to the studio audience watching the video on a big screen was I’m not sure. It’s not as if they’re even dancing enthusiastically but rather just milling about. Sort of. Very odd.

There was a third single from Cher’s “Believe” album?! Yes, there was and a fourth actually but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Though she wasn’t averse to a cover version, “All Or Nothing” wasn’t Cher’s take on the Small Faces’ classic hit but yet another track with 90s disco anthem pretensions but to my ears it was just a watered down version of “Strong Enough” which itself was the poor relation of “Believe”. Did every song on the album sound the same? There’s a slight deviation in the middle where it goes a bit “I Feel Love” by Donna Summer but then that’s just copying someone else rather than yourself.

After some of her previous outfits down the years, Cher has come to the studio in a dress-down-Friday, casual style. Her bright red hair still hints at her sense of the glamorous life though. As was almost inevitable, all the singles released from the “Believe” album would peak at a lower chart position than the one before it with “All Or Nothing” making it to No 12. I guess it was unreasonable to expect every hit to be as big as the commercial whopper that “Believe” (the song) was.

If pressed, I would have said that Feeder didn’t turn up until into the new millennium but here they were in 1999 with their fourth Top 40 hit “Insomnia”. Clearly they didn’t register on my radar back then and I now realise that they can only have bleeped for the first time when “Buck Rogers” was a Top 5 hit in 2001. Listening to them in 2026, is it fair to say they were/are like a UK version of Green Day? After all, they did have an album called “Insomniac” (ahem). Ok, Ok – not a UK version but a Welsh one. I’m nothing if not fastidious about facts. To back that claim up, I should really say that they are a Welsh-Japanese hybrid with founding member and bassist Taka Hirose being from Japan.

Looking at Feeder’s discography, I was a little surprised to see that they have released twelve studio albums with the most recent coming in 2024. Having said that, the first one came in 1997 so that’s twelve in just under 30 years. Is that a lot or not that many? More than one every three years is pretty consistent I would say. And yet the extent of my knowledge of them is pretty much the aforementioned “Buck Rogers”. Sometimes I wonder what my credentials for writing a music blog are at all.

I had the briefest of dalliances with the Red Hot Chili Peppers back in 1994 when I could no longer ignore a rerelease of “Under The Bridge”. Having been a No 26 hit in 1992, my purchase of it two years later helped it to spend two weeks at No 13. The CD single I bought included a version of “Give It Away” which I also liked. That was as far as my commitment went though and I pretty much ignored 1995’s “One Hot Minute” album. However, even my lukewarm interest was reignited by 1999’s “Californication” album. Now, let me be upfront and open – I didn’t actually buy it but I could certainly appreciate its wares starting with lead single “Scar Tissue”.

This was the more melodic side of the band that had first drawn me in via “Under The Bridge”. Indeed, comparisons highlighting similarities between the two tracks wouldn’t have been that wide of the mark. Based around the marvellously meandering guitar riffs of the returning John Frusciante, it was a great example of the band at the height of their powers. Indeed, it was so popular in America that it spent a record breaking 16 weeks atop the US Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart. It should surely have hit higher in the UK than its No 15 peak. As a song to perform on their very first visit to the TOTP studio, it was certainly a high bar. “Californication” would become one of the band’s biggest ever albums going five times platinum in the UK and eight times platinum in the US.

We’ve arrived at one of the strangest No 1 records of not just the 90s but perhaps of all time. A bold claim but what other word would you use to describe the success of “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)” by Baz Luhrmann other than strange. This one took me totally by surprise though many punters were one step ahead of me (despite my working in a record shop) and asking for it well before its official release. I clearly hadn’t been listening to Chris Moyles on Radio 1 who led a campaign to make it a hit. So what was it all about? The story of the record starts with the essay ‘Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young’ which was written by American journalist Mary Schmich and published in the June 1, 1997 issue of the Chicago Tribune. It was written as a hypothetical commencement speech given to graduating students, in which Schmich dispenses various pieces of advice for living a happy life with persistent references to using sunscreen having seen a young woman sunbathing and hoping she was wearing sufficient sun protection. An urban legend developed around the article suggesting that it was, in fact, a genuine commencement speech made by the author Kurt Vonnegut at MIT.

Enter Australian film director Baz Luhrmann who was working on a remix of Rozalla’s “Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)” for his “Something For Everybody” album, a track he’d used a version of on the soundtrack to his film William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet. Aware of the supposed Vonnegut speech, he decided to use it in the remix but wasn’t sure he could get clearance from the author in time. Looking for Vonnegut’s contact details, he became aware of the true source of the speech and was able to get consent from Schmich. Narrated by Australian voice actor Lee Perry (not the ‘Scratch’ version) it would become a member of that most exclusive of genres – the spoken word hit alongside J J Barrie’s “No Charge” and “If” by Telly Savalas. To be honest, I’d forgotten how it went and listening back to it on this TOTP repeat, I found it completely underwhelming and myself nonplussed about why there had been such a huge fuss about it in the first place. Despite said hype and amid claims that it would be one of the biggest sellers of the year (it wasn’t), it lasted just three weeks inside the Top 10. The whole episode was completely bizarre.

So did this episode continue the quality of last week’s show? Probably not. There was an awful lot of crap though the Chemical Brothers and Red Hot Chili Peppers readdressed the balance handsomely with a mention in dispatches for Feeder.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Backstreet Boys	I Want It That Way	Never
2	21st Century Girls	21st Century Girls	Negative
3	Another Level	From The Heart	Nah
4	The Chemical Brothers	Hey Boy Hey Girl	Nope
5	Cher	All Or Nothing	Nothing then
6	Feeder	Insomnia	No
7	Red Hot Chili Peppers	Scar Tissue	Liked it, didn’t buy it
8	Baz Luhrmann	Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)	I did not

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002sw98/top-of-the-pops-11061999

TOTP 04 JUN 1999

Posted on 14 Days Ago by 80stastic

This TOTP was broadcast two days before my 31st birthday in 1999 and as I recall, on the big day, I got rip-roaring drunk with various friends and work colleagues at my flat. I think I ended up prostrate on the floor unable to stir myself to even say goodbye to people. Bit embarrassing really especially as I would have been at work the next day with some of the people who would have seen me in that state. Not professional at all. Judging by the date stamp on the photo below and by my smiling face, I’d recovered by the following Thursday though. Why was that photo taken? I have no idea 27 years on (this would have been before smartphones with cameras remember) but I’m guessing we might have been going to the pub after work (probably the same Bricklayers Arms as referenced in my last post) which, if true, demonstrates an unhealthy commitment to alcohol consumption on my behalf! Anyway, drinking habits aside, what else was happening in my world back then and which hits might I have been selling over the counter?*

*Apart from Madonna’s “Beautiful Stranger” single and Geri Halliwell’s “Schizophonic” album judging by the posters in the shop window. And is that an advert for the Gay Dad album? Blimey! The bods at Head Office got that one wrong!

Jamie Theakston is our host and we start with Sixpence None The Richer who are riding high in the charts with “Kiss Me” at No 5. This one understandably got a lot of daytime radio airplay including from Mark and Lard on their Radio 1 afternoon show who would refer to the band as Sixpence None The Wiser. I used to enjoy listening to them if I found myself upstairs in the shop off the counter doing something. Featuring characters like Fat Harry White, spoof phone-in quizzes like Bird Or Bloke and surreal segments such as One Man And His Frog (“Come-bye yer bitch”), it was almost appointment listening. Sadly, the BBC, in their predictably short-sighted way, called time on Mark and Lard in 2004 with their final Radio 1 show being broadcast on 26 March. Lard’s catchphrase of “Stop!…Carry on” was heartbreakingly truncated to a final “Stop!” and some of the most entertaining daytime radio ever broadcast was gone forever.

Look at this! A No 2 hit no less which I have zero recall of! Maybe I didn’t have the constitution of an ox and I was just drunk at work as well as at the flat (I wasn’t, honest). The fact remains though that listening to “Ooh La La” by The Wiseguys now is like hearing it for the first time. No, not the first time as it sounds like one of those late 80s/early 90s sample heavy, house tunes such as “Hear the Drummer (Get Wicked)” or some such like.

Apparently, its success was down to the Budweiser advert below which again I don’t remember. Not this particular one with the crocodile anyway – anyone around at that time is familiar with the croaking frogs Bud, Weis, and Er, a forerunner of the whole “Whassup?” campaign.

“Ooh La La” was just dreadful shout-and-response nonsense and who were those berks in collars and ties up there on stage sticking it to us? One looks a bit like a young Louis Theroux and the other like Keith from The Office. Did they think they were some sort of turn of the millennium Blues Brothers? Thankfully they only had this one hit before the record buying public got wise to these guys and ignored them. Oh, and if I wanted someone to shout “Ho!” then I would choose this guy every time…

From a hit for the feeble-minded to something much more engaging. “You Look So Fine” was the fifth and final single released in the UK from Garbage’s sophomore album “Version 2.0” which was already one year old by this point so it’s not really surprising that it secured the lowest chart position of those five hits when it debuted at its peak of No 19. However, far from being a Michael Jackson fan-fleecing style release, the band had seemingly put some thought into it when they initiated a remix trading arrangement with Fun Lovin’ Criminals. You may recall that the New York hip-hoppers had recently been on the show with their hit “Korean Bodega”. That single included a remix by Garbage (which was specifically advertised on the cover artwork) and Fun Lovin’ Criminals reciprocated by producing a version of “You Look So Fine” as a slowed down, lounge standard which I think I actually prefer.

That’s not to say the original album version isn’t any good. The last track on “Version 2.0”, it shows a softer side to the band whilst retaining their alternative rock profile. The band’s drummer and co-producer Butch Vig is on record as describing it as his favourite track on the album due to its “Carpenters covers Sonic Youth quality”. Hang on. Shouldn’t that be the other way round…

Apparently the strings outro was added after the song had been initially recorded when Shirley Manson came into the studio after watching the Titanic film. She’d hated it but did draw inspiration from its soundtrack to give “You Look So Fine” a more cinematic style. The band would take that filmic theme and go stratospheric with it with their next single – the James Bond song “The World Is Not Enough” – a release which would catapult Garbage into another universe altogether.

After teaming up with the groover from Vancouver that is Bryan Adams for their hit “Cloud #9”, Chicane continued to work with other artists for next release “Saltwater” by joining forces with Máire Brennan of Clannad. It was quite the contrast in collaborations. However, it wasn’t the first time that Máire had made a record with someone else. Back in 1986, the shimmering “In A Lifetime” featuring Bono was a No 20 hit for Clannad (and a No 17 when rereleased to promote their Best Of album “Pastpresent”). “Saltwater” was something completely different. Nothing to do with Julian Lennon’s 1991 song – actually, I’d quite have liked it if it was – in fact, it was based upon another Clannad song and perhaps there most famous one. “Theme From Harry’s Game” had gone Top 5 in 1982 off the back of the success of the ITV drama Harry’s Game about the Troubles in Northern Ireland. It remains the only British hit single ever to have been sung entirely in Irish. Máire Brennan would re-record those lyrics (along with some new ones) in 1999 for Chicane to use to create “Saltwater”. A UK dance chart No 1 (it also made a healthy No 6 on the Top 40), its trance beats melded miraculously well with Brennan’s haunting, melancholic vocals creating an unusual dance classic. The celestial-type choir in virginal white backing Máire here adds to the ethereal vibe. I wonder if her younger sister Enya was watching at home thinking “I could have done that”.

The return of Supergrass next whom we had not seen nor heard for nigh on 20 months since their last chart appearance. After their first two albums had gone to No 1 and No 2 in the charts respectively, expectations were high for their eponymously titled third album. It didn’t disappoint when it went to No 3 and furnished the band with two of their most well known hits. The first of those was “Pumping On Your Stereo”, a rousing, stomper of a song that more than a little fed into the band’s glam rock influences. Like breakthrough hit “Alright” (though also nothing like it at all), it was immediately memorable with that chant-a-long chorus and just a little risqué with the double entendre of replacing “pumping” with “humping” in the repeated stanza. It deserved a higher placing than its No 11 peak.

Whilst the performance here is adequately enjoyable, it would be remiss of me not to mention the official video for the single. Perhaps one of the most fun promos of the decade, the Jim Henson designed puppet costumes created an entrancing illusion with no trace of CGI. Essentially using the puppeteer/black backdrop effect employed in 70s children’s TV show Paper Play presented by Susan Stranks, the elongated puppet bodies also lent the video the faintest whiff of the sinister akin to 1986’s Labyrinth starring David Bowie as Jareth, King of the Goblins.

I particularly like drummer Danny Goffey’s telescopic legs which make him look almost arachnid-like. It made for a much better image than just modelling Goffey as The Muppets drummer Animal from fictional group Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem. That goes for the rest of the band as well. I’m not sure that Gaz Coombes as Dr Teeth and Mick Quinn as Floyd would have worked at all well either.

Three albums into their career and Shed Seven were already at the Greatest Hits stage with the release of the album “Going For Gold”. Could that position be justified?

*checks Shed Seven discography*

Well, they had clocked up twelve Top 40 hits by this point which would certainly be enough to comprise a Greatest Hits album. However, of those twelve, only one made the Top 10 and just five peaked between the positions 20 and 11. Having checked the track listing for “Going For Gold”, I can confirm that all twelve of those chart hits were included within a 15 song set which was completed by debut single “Mark” which failed to make the Top 40 and two new songs. The first of those was “Disco Down” which was released to promote the collection. This was a great little song with a choppy intro that drew you in from the very start, a sweeping, string-laden bridge leading into a gloriously uplifting chorus with the pay off of a killer final line. Absolutely one of the band’s best ever recordings and absolutely worthy of spearheading a Best Of campaign.

“Going For Gold: The Greatest Hits” would go Top 10 and achieve (very appropriately) gold status. However, it would also be the harbinger of a break up between the band and their label Polydor. Shed Seven themselves had questioned the validity of releasing a Best Of album so early in their career but had agreed after securing consent from Polydor that they could release two new singles from it. “Disco Down” had been the first and was supposed to be followed by “High Hopes” but Polydor reneged on the agreement, wanting to re-release “Going For Gold” instead. The band saw this as short changing their fanbase and this would ultimately lead to them parting ways with their label. In the intervening years, they have released four more albums including 2024’s No 1 “A Matter Of Time” and also that year, “Liquid Gold”, an album consisting of re-imagined/re-recorded versions of their songs. This would follow “A Matter Of Time” to the top of the charts giving them two No 1 albums in the same calendar year, a feat achieved by very few artists.

After having reached critical mass commercially when their third album “Travelling Without Moving” went quadruple platinum, Jamiroquai kept that momentum going by scoring their first ever No 1 single with “Deeper Underground” from the Godzilla soundtrack. By 1999, the pressure to maintain that run must have been on and Jay Kay responded to it with fourth album “Synkronized” and it did well. Really well. It topped the UK charts going platinum in the process. However, success is relative and ultimately it sold less than half the amount of copies of its predecessor worldwide. You couldn’t fault the expansive exuberance of lead single “Canned Heat” though with its retro 70s disco feel and strong Saturday Night Fever symptoms. The album itself was generally well received but with a few dissenting voices. The critic Tom Moon said of it:

“Canned Heat” and several other tracks are thinly veiled rewrites of “Virtual Insanity” and the other radio songs from “Travelling Without Moving”

Moon, Tom (9 July 1999). “Jamiroquai expands on its ‘70s influences: [Final Edition]”. Las Vegas Review-Journal.

And that was my problem with Jamiroquai. It really was all starting to sound the same. Retread after retread of what had gone before. It was fine in short bursts but the idea of listening to a whole album of it? I’d rather turn up for work with a stinking hangover (and I knew all too well what that felt like as we have already discussed earlier).

Shanks & Bigfoot remain at No 1 for a second week with “Sweet Like Chocolate”. Again we get the animated video rather than a studio performance. Did the duo not like the limelight? Had they had a heavy weekend on the lash like I had and weren’t up to an in person appearance? If so, they had my sympathies.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Sixpence None The Richer	Kiss Me	I did not
2	The Wiseguys	Ooh La La	Heavens no!
3	Garbage	You Look So Fine	Negative
4	Chicane / Máire Brennan	Saltwater	Nope
5	Supergrass	Pumping On Your Stereo	No but I had the parent album
6	Shed Seven	Disco Down	No but I think I had that Greatest Hits album it came from
7	Jamiroquai	Canned Heat	Nah
8	Shanks & Bigfoot	Sweet Like Chocolate	No

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002sjbl/top-of-the-pops-04061999

TOTP 28 MAY 1999

Posted on 20 Days Ago by 80stastic

Two days before this TOTP aired, Manchester United completed an historic treble when they dramatically came from behind to beat Bayern Munich at the death and win the Champions League to add to their Premier League title and FA Cup. It’s one of those sporting moments which everyone can remember where they were when it happened. For me, I had spent the day at work in the Our Price store in Altrincham which is only six or seven miles from Old Trafford. As such there were plenty of United fans in Altrincham (I worked with a couple) that day. The plan was to stay out after work, settle down in a pub and watch the game that way. What our group hadn’t banked on was how busy the pubs would be on the evening. We went into one place where it looked like the guys in there had staked their claims for their seats hours before and just stared down anyone who came in thinking that they had a chance of securing a decent spot. We left quickly. In the end, we resorted to our old faithful the Bricklayers Arms where we would often go for a post work drink. Inevitably, it was packed and they only had a small TV screen at the far end of the pub so it wasn’t the best vantage point. However, it was too late to find anywhere else so we stayed and watched the action as best we could.

For much of the match it seemed that United had stage fright and were blowing their chance of achieving the treble. Then came that finale. As the clock on the screen clicked past the 90 minutes mark and the score still 0-1 to Bayern, I recall saying to a United supporting colleague that it was all over. Three minutes later it was but with United with their hands on the big-eared trophy. It was truly gripping stuff. After the game, I got the tram home to Manchester which was full of celebrating reds wondering if my beloved Chelsea would ever be able to win the Champions League. Thirteen years later I would have my answer as we also beat Bayern Munich in dramatic style giving cause to doubt 1999 final commentator Clive Tyldesley’s remark that “nobody will ever win a European Cup final more dramatically than this”.

It seems like I might be back to a themed post so let’s get to it. First of all though, I should mention that this episode was quite historic, not for the music featured in it but its location. Filmed in Archaos nightclub in Glasgow, this was the first time ever a show was recorded outside of a studio environment and the first in over 30 years to be filmed outside London. Why? Well, Glasgow was the location of the BBC Music Live 1999 festival featuring over 100 events including performances from Ray Charles, Idlewild, Travis, and The Delgados. As part of the promotion for it, a nice little tie-in with TOTP saw the show shifted to Glasgow for one week only. As such, executive producer Chris Cowey seems to have squeezed as many Scottish acts as possible into the running order alongside Edinburgh born presenter Gail Porter. As for a link to the events at the Camp Nou, Barcelona two days prior, well, Glasgow is home to Celtic, the first ever British winners of the European Cup.

We start though with a performance back in London from the UK Eurovision entry Precious and their tune “Say It Again”. This was always going to happen as the song contest was held the day after this TOTP was broadcast (blimey, it was all happening this week in 1999 wasn’t it?) so the BBC was bound to plug our entry*. So how did we do? Not great, not great at all actually. Twelfth position with just 38 points received and to think we had won the thing just two years before and came second in 1998. These days, that sort of result would probably be seen as standard but it must have been a bit of a shock back then though I can’t recall the actual reaction at the time. As for Precious, they limped on for a couple more minor hits but their only album completely bombed and they split in 2000. Perhaps their biggest claim to fame is that one of their number – Jenny Frost – would go in to great chart success when she replaced Kerry Katona in Atomic Kitten.

*In fairness, they had gone straight into the Top Ten at No 6 as well.

Manchester United Treble link: Well, Gail Porter does say in her intro that Precious were hoping to do a Manchester United and become Eurovision champs and then mentions Alex Ferguson in her outro so there’s that.

It’s the first performance from Glasgow next and when I said Chris Cowey had squeezed as many Scottish acts as possibly the running order, I didn’t think he would have gone this far. What am I talking about? Well, Texas were there to perform their next single “Summer Son” but it wasn’t out in the shops until the 16th August! That’s nearly three months on from this TOTP! I’m sure it was viewed as a legitimate promotional opportunity by those involved but it didn’t help those poor saps working in record shops (i.e. me) who would be asked the following day for the new Texas single only to be told it’s not out for three months despite the fact that it was on TOTP the night before. Look, it was performed twice on the show when it was finally released so I’ll leave it until then to discuss the actual song.

Manchester United Treble link: Teddy Sheringham who scored United’s first goal in the final and Sharleen Spiteri were both participants in a 2011 Celtic FC famine appeal charity match to raise funds for East Africa.

We’re back in London next for a band with a hit single which sounds very familiar. Who is it that Sugar Ray and their song “Every Morning” reminds me of? Well, take your pick from any of this lot:

Smash Mouth
Fastball
OMC
Len

Catchy, breezy, summery – yes, it was all those things and it had a flamenco flavour to it which seemed so popular in the 90s after the Gypsy Kings had crossed over at the start of the decade.

Not quite a one hit wonder but close to it, Sugar Ray had formed in 1992 – yes, they were a band not a person as in the boxers Sugar Ray Robinson and Sugar Ray Leonard – as a funk metal outfit in the style of the Red Hot Chili Peppers but shifted to a more pop sound in 1997 with their single “Fly” which was a No 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart. They fully embraced that more mainstream sound on their third album “14:59” from which “Every Morning” was taken. The album went triple platinum in the US but failed to get any commercial foothold in the UK. Diminishing returns set in after that peak but the band are still together mainly playing live with their last album having been released in 2019. Ethan Hawke lookalike singer Mark McGrath would eke out a parallel TV game show host career but for some people Sugar Ray will always be that band from the Scooby Doo movie…

Manchester United Treble link: Author Simon Hughes, who has written biographies of Manchester United legends such as Tommy Taylor, Dennis Viollet, Jimmy Murphy, and Denis Law, also wrote a book about the boxer Sugar Ray Robinson.

Well, this is fortunate. A Scottish band who have a new entry in this week’s Top 40 and who are available to perform in this Glasgow based TOTP in support of the BBC Music Live 1999 festival. Having made the leap from post-Britpop indie rockers on the fringes of the chart to the mainstream of radio friendly pop/rock with their Top 20 hit “Writing To Reach You”, the next release for Travis would be an important one. At the very least it needed to consolidate on that breakthrough success and that’s exactly what “Driftwood” did when it became the band’s highest charting single to that point. A gentler, more acoustic sounding track than its predecessor, it showcased their melodic side with a lovely bridge part into the floating chorus. In some ways, it’s an almost semi-forgotten single compared to the what came after it but it helped to pave the way for next release “Why Does It Always Rain On Me?” which is surely one of their best known tunes. Global success was almost within reach and they didn’t need to write to anyone to get it.

Manchester United Treble link: Part of the backroom staff supporting interim United manager Michael Carrick is one Travis Binnion who currently serves as a first team and lead coach for the Under-21s.

Dagnabbit! Well, that just dills my pickle! Or something. It’s only Shania Twain again with a reshowing of her performance of “That Don’t Impress Me Much” from last week. Do I have to review this again? I made my feelings about it quite clear in the last post. I’ve told my Shania tribute act story before haven’t I? Yes, I’m sure I have. Erm…what about her fashion choices and specifically that leopard print all in one hoodie. What was all that about? Apparently, Shania loves leopard print. There’s even a video on YouTube which she made for Elle magazine in which she explains why leopard print is her neutral. How can that be?! How can leopard print be neutral?! It’s one of the most eye-catching/garish (delete as appropriate) things you could ever wear. To be fair, I didn’t watch the whole video – two minutes of Shania describing her ‘cowgirl’ fashion was more than enough – so maybe she does give a reason for that bizarre statement but I guess I’ll never know. I’ll live with(out) it.

Manchester United Treble link: United midfielder Roy Keane was famously suspended for the final (alongside Paul Scholes) so he missed out on all the drama and glory. However, how many of his team mates have a song about them to the tune of “That Don’t Impress Me Much”?

Now here’s a song that immediately takes me back to late Spring/early Summer 1999 when I hear it. It also has strong connotations with a certain American teen drama series but I’ll get to that later. Sixpence None The Richer formed in 1992 as a Christian alternative rock band (I never knew there was such a genre!) taking their name from a passage in a C.S. Lewis book. However, it wasn’t until 98/99 that they emerged from the closet (that’s a Narnia reference rather than any comment on their sexuality) into the pop mainstream with their worldwide hit “Kiss Me”. A rather lovely, jangly guitar piece, it was in a similar vein to “Stay (I Missed You)” by Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories from 1994 and the soundtrack to the film Reality Bites. Perhaps a bit more indie in nature though. Certainly the music press likened it to something that The Sundays might have recorded. Like Loeb’s hit, “Kiss Me” was also the theme tune to a film – teen rom com She’s All That starring Freddie Prinze Jr and Matthew Lillard who, coincidentally, were also in that aforementioned Scooby Doo movie that featured Sugar Ray.

However, it’s not that film which is its strongest association for me. That would be its inclusion on the soundtrack to the US teen drama Dawson’s Creek. Featuring some of the most overly earnest and verbose teenage characters ever seen on TV, this show used to be shown on a Sunday morning on Channel 4 as part of their T4 output and it was perfect ‘hangover programming’ for those of us who’d had one drink too many the night before. Some of my Our Price colleagues were well into this show and would play its soundtrack constantly in the shop. Perhaps by osmosis, I also got into it and actually went back recently to finish watching all five series (I stopped initially at two). Was it worth my time and effort to see whether Dawson or Pacey ended up with Joey? Probably not but at least it was a more satisfying ending than Lost. As for Sixpence None The Richer, they would have one more UK hit – a brave possibly foolhardy cover of “There She Goes” by The Las – before splitting in 2004 and subsequently reuniting three years later and were still gigging with the likes of 10,000 Maniacs as recently as 2023.

Manchester United Treble link: Sixpence None The Richer are known for having a “jangly” guitars sound – a high-frequency, treble-heavy tone characteristic of 90s college rock.

After three different boybands occupied the No 1 slot in recent weeks and with ex-Spice Girl Geri Halliwell unable to dislodge them from their throne, it was time for a different strategy from women in music. Instead of all girl groups, a new wave of female chart hopefuls arrived in the form of all girl bands who played their instruments. Now of course this wasn’t a completely new phenomenon. In the 70s we had South African band Clout of “Substitute” fame, whilst in America came The Runaways. Into the 80s, the same country also gave us The Go-Go’s and The Bangles whilst in dear old Blighty we had heavy rockers Girlschool. In the 90s, we had a rush of almost all girl indie bands like L7 and The Breeders but an out and out all girl mainstream rock/pop band? I’m struggling to think of many before Hepburn. Obviously named after Audrey, their debut hit “I Quit” wasn’t a cover of the old Bros track (thank God!) but a song co-written and produced by Phil Thornalley who’d been one of the people behind Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn”. Indeed, the ex-Neighbours actor had been offered “I Quit” but had declined to record it. I think she might have made the right decision as it’s not the strongest track. I mean yes, it’s got a rather shouty chorus hook but there’s not a lot else to it. The lyrics are a bit clunky (rhyming ‘liar’ with ‘messiah’ for example, or is that actually genius?) and the lead singers vocals aren’t the best (is that southern twang affected or natural?).

As with Sugar Ray and Sixpence None The Richer, there was a TV/film tie in with Hepburn as “I Quit” appeared on the soundtrack to Buffy the Vampire Slayer which starred Sarah Michelle Gellar (who also starred in the Scooby Doo movie).Apparently, the band were meant to appear in an episode of Buffy in the background of a scene but it never happened. Talking of Sixpence None The Richer, doesn’t the intro to “I Quit” sound a bit like “Kiss Me”? I don’t know why I’ve been trying to shoehorn connections to Manchester United into this post – there are plenty of other links all over this TOTP! In Hepburn’s wake came Thunderbugs (bizarrely, the follow up to “I Quit” was called “Bugs”) and 21st Century Girls but the whole scene was short lived with all three bands named above barely making it into the new millennium before collectively saying “I Quit”.

Manchester United Treble link: David Beckham’s wife Victoria has cited Audrey Hepburn as a favorite actress. Their former home – ‘Beckingham Palace’ – famously had a bathroom featuring walls covered entirely in photos of Audrey Hepburn.

The boyband-at-No 1 sequence has been broken by a record that was an underground club sensation and his since secured a near legendary reputation in the UK Garage scene. Despite working in a record shop at the time, I didn’t pick up on any of this and to me, it was just another dance hit by some anonymous producers. The names Steven Meade and Danny Langsman probably don’t mean much to those of us on the outside of the world of garage music but the monikers Shanks & Bigfoot probably do cut through. “Sweet Like Chocolate” was the track that assured their fame and legacy. Originally released just as a promo with a limited run of 1,000 copies in 1998, it was heavily promoted by KISS FM despite not having an official release. Its saturation rotation caused a record label bidding war for the rights to the track which was eventually won by Jive and when it was finally made available in the shops, it stormed to the top of the charts selling a quarter of a million copies in the first week and more than the rest of the Top 5 combined.

Thankfully we don’t get a forced studio appearance here with the usual staging conundrums associated with a dance act but the rather sweet animated video which added to the song’s appeal, perhaps picking up some sales from the younger end of the record buying public to boot. I could have done without the personal message from Shanks & Bigfoot themselves though. Why was it so successful? Don’t ask me. I didn’t dare go near the dance collections section of the Our Price I worked in so confusing were the myriad of genres. It was genuinely more challenging to me than shoplifters.

Manchester United Treble link: Manchester United’s biggest rivals are Liverpool whose manager between 1959 and 1974 was the legendary Bill Shankly otherwise known as “Shanks”.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Precious	Say It Again	No
2	Texas	Summer Son	Nope
3	Sugar Ray	Every Morning	Negative
4	Travis	Driftwood	No but I had a promo sampler of the album
5	Shania Twain	That Don’t Impress Me Much	NEVER
6	Sixpence None The Richer	Kiss Me	I did not
7	Hepburn	I Quit	Nah
8	Shanks & Bigfoot	Sweet Like Chocolate	And no

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002sjbj/top-of-the-pops-28051999

TOTP 21 MAY 1999

Posted on 23 Days Ago by 80stastic

Looking at the running order for this TOTP, there’s only three songs in it that I remember how they sound and one of those I really wish I didn’t. And this from a man who was working in a mainstream record chain at the time (I even have photo evidence that I’ll share at some point). I mean, I must have sold some of these singles over the counter to customers – they might as well have been tins of beans it seems.

Our host is Scott Mills and we start with the one hit that I so wish I could delete from my memory banks. 1999 had already given us some resolutely dubious moments but we have arrived at the point in time when it offered up the Shania Twain crossover pivot. Up until now, the Canadian singer had been of a definite country flavour to those of us who were not members of her fan base, the casual listeners per se. She’d had a sizeable hit with an inoffensive ballad in “You’re Still The One” and a couple of minor charting follow ups but I’d thought that maybe that would be that for Shania and never the Twain would meet with the UK Top 40 again.

However, I hadn’t banked on “That Don’t Impress Me Much”. I can’t tell you him much this song annoys me. Actually, I can. I HATE IT! I DETEST IT! I DESPISE IT! Why? Because of its inane lyrics that name check Brad Pitt and the way she delivers them especially when the song pauses and she almost sarcastically speaks rather than sings the lines. Then there’s the hideous synth sound parping away in the background that makes it sound like an advertising jingle. Most of all though, I can’t stand that so many people not just bought into the song but actually bought it in enough copies to take it to No 3 for three consecutive weeks and for it to spend nearly five months inside the Top 40. “That Don’t Impress Me Much” was the crucial piece of the pie that transformed Shania from a country singer to a mainstream pop star peddling material that allowed the record buying public to convince themselves that their tastes hadn’t been hijacked by country & western music. It wasn’t even ‘new country’, it was…country-pop? Pop- country? Not very snappy is it? Perhaps if I shortened the word ‘country’? Oh. Well, that particular amalgamation results in an unfortunate (if accurate) description. Whatever it was, it didn’t impress me much. Ahem. Unbelievably, as soon as “That Don’t Impress Me Much” finally dropped out of the charts, Shania released an even more nauseating single in “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!”! but I can only deal with so much bad music from a single artist in one post.

So all that promotion, all that marketing, all that hype couldn’t actually deliver Geri Halliwell a No 1 with her debut solo single “Look At Me”. In the end, she couldn’t get past a Boyzone cover version of yet another ballad and had to be content with the runners up spot. It must have been a disappointment to her and her label but it would all turn out OK as her next four singles did top the charts. Three of them were from her album “Schizophonic” which went double platinum in the UK, selling two million copies worldwide. I guess commercial popularity didn’t come in spades for Robbie Williams initially so maybe team Geri didn’t panic.

However, despite a continuation of that success into the new millennium with her cover of “It’s Raining Men” going to No 1 in 2001, that old chestnut diminishing returns raised its head again. It left a calling card with sophomore album “Scream If You Wanna Go Faster” which made the Top 5 but sold a sixth of its predecessor. By the time of third album “Passion” in 2005, (who knew there was a third album!), diminishing returns was banging on Geri’s front door demanding to be let in. After 12 months of being on the shelves, it had only sold 10,000 copies. Very few people seemed to be looking at or, more crucially, listening to Geri at that time.

OK so here’s a potentially unpopular opinion – why were Space dismissed as a novelty group (including by my friend Robin who described them as a “joke band”) but Super Furry Animals were seen as credible, authentic and cool (Cymru)? Weren’t there a fair few similarities between the two bands? Both had a quirky sound that was hard to define with beguiling lyrics drawn from unconventional subject matter featuring unusual musical instruments. Both had lead singers with distinctive voices and an anti-pop image and both seemed to achieve commercial success by not bandwagon jumping nor riding the zeitgeist. And yet, it see seems to me, that it was the Welsh band that were taken more seriously than their Liverpool counterparts. I could be wrong of course. But then I listen to something like “Northern Lites” and I think there is something in my comparison. It’s typically Super Furry Animals in that it’s an untypical pop song featuring what sounds like a Mariachi band and a steel drum somewhere in the mix.

Isn’t there a Space song that features a Mariachi band? If not then something similar? After all, their musical mission statement was described thusly:

“Space is all about making songs with all the latest technology and throwing every genre of music into the mix to come up with something mad.”

Tommy Scott, summing up Space’s approach to Transatlantic Modern in 2020.

Anyway, I quite liked “Northern Lites” though it isn’t one of my absolute favourites of theirs. Also, what was with the costumes that some of the guys up there on stage were wearing? What were they meant to be? Super Furry Animals? They look like badly designed football club mascots but then, as we’re talking about comparisons, nothing will ever compare to Kingsley, the Patrick Thistle FC mascot…

I’ve said this many times in this blog but there was clearly lots more to Skunk Anansie than my initial recollection of them which was basically their hit single “Weak”. The band’s many TOTP appearances (they were on ten times in total performing eight different songs, itself an indication of the breadth of their back catalogue) has introduced me to much more about them than I remembered or imagined there might be.

This week in 1999 they showed us what they would have done with a song for a James Bond movie had they ever been commissioned to do so. “Secretly” (even the song title had a spy/secret agent vibe) had a string section backing to it that sparked 007 connections in my synapses. The verses are delicately delivered leading into a beautifully elongated chorus which showcased one of Skin’s more controlled vocals. Apparently the song did feature in a film but not of the James Bond variety – it plays over the credits of the 1999 teen romantic drama Cruel Intentions which was based on the 1782 novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses.

Duane Harden didn’t have much luck when it came to establishing his name as a singer did he? Despite being the vocalist on a No 1 record, most people knew it as an Armand Van Helden track (even the song’s title rubbed the salt in – “You Don’t Know Me”). Undeterred, for his next release, he teamed up with New York disco house DJ Lenny Fontana (a better pop star name than Duane Harden I would suggest – the latter sounds more like a porn than pop star) aka Powerhouse and they delivered No 13 hit and dance chart No 1 “What You Need”. Nothing to do with the early INXS single, it actually sampled a Thelma Houston tune but reminded me of 1986 Chicago house anthem “Love Can’t Turn Around” by Farley ‘Jackmaster’ Funk featuring Darryl Pandy. Not that I know what I’m talking about of course. What I do know is that Duane never did have another UK Top 40 hit. Seemingly Harden didn’t have what we needed ultimately.

Referring back to my statement at the start of this post, I think I may have reached the crossover point where there are more songs in the 1999 charts that I don’t know than there are that I do. Who the hell were 1000 Clowns and why did their lead singer and rapper Kevi look like such a big dork? “(Not the) Greatest Rapper” was their only UK hit and it’s another track that reminds me of something else. We’d heard a flute riff (do flutes have riffs?) on a dance/rap hit back in 1993 courtesy of Stakka Bo and their song “Here We Go”…

I have to say I prefer Stakka Bo to 1000 Clowns. Maybe it’s the slower bpm or the delivery from Kevi but it just sounds (and looks) so lame. Death by 1000 cuts or listen to 1000 Clowns? The answer is the latter of course but it really shouldn’t have been that close a call.

When Oasis announced that they were reforming for a world tour, many leapt to the conclusion that it was to pay for Noel Gallagher’s divorce. If it was, he wasn’t the first Mancunian rock star to pull such a stunt. Back in 1999, the Happy Mondays were suddenly back together allegedly to help pay off outstanding tax bills owed by Shaun Ryder to HMRC. Following the legendary disastrous gestation period and release of the band’s fourth studio album “Yes Please!” had brought about the end of Factory Records, the Mondays were no more and Ryder and Bez moved on to Black Grape. A comeback looked very unlikely but, as so often is the case, money is the root of all reunions and so an international and UK tour was undertaken including two nights at the Brixton Academy and a sell out of the 20,000 capacity Manchester Arena. They even supported the aforementioned Oasis on their ‘Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants’ tour.

Obviously, a Greatest Hits album was released to tie in with all this touring and to promote that, a single was released. A very loose cover version of Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back In Town” was selected for the job which is what we are ‘treated’ to in this TOTP appearance, their first for nearly seven years and only fifth in total. Still, that’s not a bad number for a group that were banned from the show following their first appearance after Ryder told a pompous BBC suit to “f**k off knobhead” backstage. The disparity from the attitude of that initial TOTP outing to the nonsense of this appearance is striking. If it looks like a shambles and sounds like a shambles, it is a shambles. Just awful to watch and I say that as someone who has seen the Happy Mondays live. The band have reformed and disbanded a few times since but are currently touring to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the release of “Pills ‘N’ Thrills And Bellyaches”. I’m betting that “The Boys Are Back In Town” doesn’t make the set list.

So here’s the song that beat that much promoted Geri Halliwell single to the top spot and it’s yet another crappy Boyzone cover version. Apparently their label Polydor gave them the option of delaying the release of “You Needed Me” by a week to avoid going head to head with Halliwell but they declined the option presumably because they were supremely confident in their own single’s ability to shift units or they’d got to the point where they didn’t care anymore. I think the latter might be the case. Whatever the truth is, it was surely one in the eye for Geri.

Originally an American No 1 for Anne Murray in 1978 (it only made No 22 over here), Boyzone’s take on “You Needed Me” meant that seven of their fifteen hits up to this point had been other people’s songs – nearly half of them. Cover versions also accounted for three of their total of six No 1s (of which this was the final one). Perhaps the most significant stat though was that the last three UK chart toppers in 1999 were by boybands – Westlife, Backstreet Boys and now Boyzone. Was girl power over?

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Shania Twain	That Don’t Impress Me Much	NOOOOOO!
2	Geri Halliwell	Look At Me	Nah
3	Super Furry Animals	Northern Lites	Nope
4	Skunk Anansie	Secretly	Negative
5	Powerhouse featuring Duane Harden	What You Need	It wasn’t
6	1000 Clowns	(Not the) Greatest Rapper	No
7	Happy Mondays	The Boys Are Back In Town	I did not
8	Boyzone	You Needed Me	Never

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002s7dl/top-of-the-pops-21051999

TOTP 14 MAY 1999

Posted on 26 Days Ago by 80stastic

I’ve done a lot of themed posts lately but this one is going to just be a straight run through of the music on the show. That’s how I started out doing this blog nine years ago so maybe it’s time for a back to basics approach. Jayne Middlemiss is our host and we start with a boy band who’d just had their first No 1 with their last single. 911 had finally got to the top with a cover version of Dr Hook’s “A Little Bit More”. That had been preceded by another treatment of someone else’s song – “More Than A Woman” by the Bee Gees. And guess what? This song- “Private Number” – was yet another cover with the 1968 original by Judy Clay and William Bell having been a No 8 hit. There’s a reason for all of this – parent album “There It Is” was made up entirely of cover versions. I know boy bands taking on other people’s songs was an established tactic when it came to securing a hit single but did they really need to do a whole album of them? In fact, which artists did they put their own spin on?

*checks track listing*

Well, mostly it was the soul/R&B/disco genre that they plundered with the likes of Tavares, Heatwave, The Real Thing and Shalamar represented. However, a couple of other tracks stood out – Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” and “You’re The Best Thing” by The Style Council. I guess the choice of the former kind of makes sense – a genuine pop classic (I’m talking of its stature and profile rather than its musical quality) but the latter?! That’s not right is it?! Dare I listen to the 911 version? I do…

*listens to 911 version*

As expected, completely pointless! Sanitised, soulless, plastic…just horrible. Why do I put myself through these things? Anyway, “Private Number” would do the business for the trio by going Top 3 but 911’s pop star journey was coming to an end. There would be only one more hit (the No 13 “Wonderland”) from a Greatest Hits album and that was it. Lead singer Lee Brennan and Spike Dawbarn made the decision to split the group (third member Jimmy Constable wasn’t in on the decision apparently) and there would be no more until the first of a series of reunions in 2008.

As for the performance here, they show Westlife how to do it by sitting on stools throughout and dressed in white and beige – appropriately the colours of the nondescript. Only the presence of the female singer on the piano breaks up the monotony. Wikipedia tells me she is Natalie Jordan who worked with the likes of Louise and Matthew Marsden. Not much surprising there but the fact that she was one of the co-writers on the track “Superheroes” on Stormzy’s “Heavy Is The Head” album did peak my interest. One more thing. A group named after one of the most well known telephone numbers in the world singing a song called “Private Number” is a bit ironic isn’t it?

We have arrived at the point in the dance obsessed 90s where even Bryan Adams sat at the bpm counter and added a backbeat to his songs. Well, one song. For the moment anyway. Said song was “Cloud #9” or “Cloud Number Nine” as it was originally titled on the album “A Day Like Today”. The third single taken from the album, Adams decided he wanted to shake things up a bit by having it remixed. Step forward Nicholas Bracegirdle aka Chicane who’d had a hit with the track “Offshore” a couple of years before. So how different was the dance remix from the original? Having listened to both, there is a definite distinction between them but we were hardly talking the Armand van Helden remix of Tori Amos’s “Professional Widow” here. The album version is a fairly straightforward soft-rock song the like of which Adams specialised in. The remix adds an echoey, looped intro and a familiar backbeat but the basic tune remained intact. It proved to be a good decision with the single edit making No 6. The album was rereleased with the Chicane remix added as an extra track which has become the recognised and accepted version.

This performance sees Bry with a full on turn of the millennium floppy haircut in stark contrast to the slick, short back and sides he sports today. The all white backdrop and outfits that him and his band are wearing jar a bit (who did they think they were – Westlife? 911?) but I assume it’s to tie in with the idea of ‘clouds’? Adams would see out the decade with a second Best Of album and started the 2000s with an improbable No 1 single when he returned the favour and supplied (electronically altered) vocals for the Chicane single “Don’t Give Up”.

The saga of Whitney Houston’s “It’s Not Right Buy It’s Okay” and its multiple TOTP appearances has only just ended and we’re immediately embroiled in another such chronicle. Yes, just three weeks on from the final performance of her previous single, here was Whitney back with the follow up “My Love Is Your Love”. Now, I posited the theory the other week that the reason we got all these repeat appearances on the show was that Whitney’s management had insisted that she would only do a studio appearance for the BBC if it was shown a certain amount of times. Could the follow up be a part of the same deal? It would be shown three times in total so if you add that figure to the five times that “It’s Not Right Buy It’s Okay” was shown then that’s quite a package especially if the performances for both songs were recorded together in the studio one after the other which I’m thinking is maybe possible. To be clear, I haven’t gone forensic over this – it just seems likely to me.

As with the promotion for Geri Halliwell’s “Look At Me”, the marketing behind this one was comprehensive. The single wasn’t even released until June 21st and we wouldn’t see it again on the show until July 2nd, six weeks after this debut performance. Record label Arista were playing a long game. It worked though. “My Love Is Your Love” would debut at No 2 and spend seven weeks in the Top 10 whilst the knock on sales of its parent album saw it spend over a month inside the Top 5.

As for the song’s sound, listening back to it now was like hearing Whitney do her best Fugees impression and then, lo and behold, I read that it was produced by Wyclef Jean and it all made sense. There’s also an element of Bob Marley in there (whom the Fugees covered themselves of course) but what’s most revealing is Whitney’s restrained vocals on it which belie her ‘shouty diva’ persona. As we’ll be coming back to this one, I’ll leave it there for now.

Who?! Fierce? I’ve got nothing but clearly they were yet another R&B girl group. Would it be fair to say that they were not in the very elite strata of that genre? By that I mean they were more N-Tyce than TLC. Their discography shows that they had four chart hits including this one “Dayz Like That” and a version of Anita Baker’s “Sweet Love” which went Top 3 in 2000 which suggests I should have a better memory of them.

Hang on though. A post on X by @TOTPFacts has rung a bell….

Fierce’s Chantel Alleyne is now the office manager for a tech company. She was a contestant on Deal or No Deal last year. and won £1050. https://t.co/NaT8NF6NWJ #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) March 6, 2026

I do remember this! I have a weakness for Deal Or No Deal and the late working hours of my job mean I’m quite often around in the daytime when it’s on. Stephen Mulhearn asked Chantel about being in a girl group but I don’t think I realised it was one that had achieved actual chart success. Well, at least it’s a spin on being on the ‘Identity Parade’ section of Never Mind The Buzzcocks!

The staggered and ultimately truncated chart career of Kula Shaker was nearly at its end with the release of “Shower Your Love”. For a band that once appeared to have the world at their feet, it was quite the implosion. After their first album “K” had become the fastest selling debut album by a UK artist eventually going double platinum and a BRIT Award for ‘British Breakthrough Act’, the road to further success was blocked by a series of rucks with the press. The long established tabloid tactic of building someone up only to knock them down came into play with the show business family tree of Crispian Mills a target. The singer’s ill advised comments about the cultural references and mystical properties of the Swastika symbol certainly didn’t help either. Then there was the loss of momentum caused by delays to release schedules causing a gap of two and a half years between albums punctuated by the appearances of just two singles. The second of those – “Sound Of Drums” – was meant to be the lead single from sophomore album “Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts” but the parent collection wasn’t in the shops for another year. By the time it came out, it sold just a sixth of its predecessor “K”.

It was all a bit of a shame as I’d always liked them. “Shower Your Love”, for example, is a great tune if a little psychedelic heavy. It would prove to be the band’s last Top 40 hit when it peaked at No 14. After splitting in 1999, they reconvened in 2004 and have been a going concern ever since releasing six studio albums in that time with the most recent arriving in January this year and securing their highest chart position (No 13) since “Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts”. Like those other 90s bands Jesus Jones and The Bluetones, they continue to play live gigs to audiences who, like them, aren’t ready for the story to end just yet.

There’s a big dance tune in the charts at No 12 which TOTP Executive Producer Chris Cowey can’t ignore so yet again he’s had to come up with an ever more desperate way to showcase it on prime time TV. There have been some epic failures on this score throughout the 90s era of the show and this one is no exception. There may be a reason why, for Pete Heller’s hit “Big Love”, they chose to go with two men wearing (paper mache?) elephant heads (do they feature in the promo video?) and a third with a cardboard box on his noggin (a parody of stacking boxes dance moves?) but I really can’t be arsed to look into it. To add to the surreal nature of the performance, a stop-frame effect has been added. Was this meant to somehow imitate a club atmosphere with strobe lighting or something? It just seems to elongate time and make the whole thing last twice as long as it should.

So who was/is Pete Heller? Well, he’s a house music producer from Brighton…wait, what? Another prominent dance music figure from the East Sussex seaside resort? If dance music was a football club, it would be my beloved Chelsea – both are obsessed with Brighton. Whilst we’ve plundered The Seagulls for the players Marc Cucurella, Robert Sanchez and Moises Caicedo for a combined price of £200 million (and disastrously pinched their manager Graham Potter), Brighton has given dance music Fatboy Slim, Phats & Small and now Pete Heller as well? No doubt “Big Love” was a bangin’ anthem but I don’t have to tell you that this did/does nothing for me do I?

The best song on the show? I think so (with an honourable mention to Kula Shaker) and it was certainly the track that made me think I should own a copy of “Performance And Cocktails” by the Stereophonics. The third hit from the album, “Pick A Part That’s New” had all those components I normally look for in a song – great hooks, edgy guitar riffs and strong vocals. After “The Bartender And The Thief” and “Just Looking” both went Top 5, the fact that the album’s next single could also pull off that same chart achievement shows the quality and strength of its material. Their promotion from just another post-Britpop band to major rock stars was under way.

Written about feeling underwhelmed by the band’s first trip to America, Kelly Jones explained that he felt he’d seen it all before through the medium of TV and films and that perception didn’t match up to the reality. I have to say that isn’t what I experienced the first time I visited New York in 1994. In fact, it did feel like being in a film walking down Fifth Avenue.

Oh God. How did it come to this? For the first time ever the Top 3 is a complete boy band zone being occupied by 911, Westlife and the Backstreet Boys who have their first and (mercifully) only No 1 single with “I Want It That Way”. And guess what? Next week’s No 1 is *SPOILER ALERT* bloody Boyzone! It’s not like we weren’t warned about Backstreet Boys though. Their last five singles peaked at:

2 – 4 – 3 – 3 – 2

A chart topper was always likely with those sorts of numbers. The song that eventually did it for them was awful though. Cynically designed in the fiendish Dr Bad Pop Music’s laboratory, it brainwashed the country’s female teenage population into thinking these chancers were a big thing, nay the real deal even. They were neither. Well, they were a big deal in terms of selling records but since when was that an indication of anything resembling talent. Even Mr Blobby had a No 1. For the first few times I heard “I Want It That Way”, I could have sworn that, in the second line of the chorus, they were singing “ain’t nothing but a piss-take” as opposed to “ain’t nothing but a mistake”. Maybe it was my bias influencing my ears as piss-takers was definitely what this lot were. They out-Westlife Westlife, 911 and even Bryan Adams in this performance with their stools, all white outfits and fake earnest nonsense. This was just deplorable stuff. 1999 – you have a lot to answer for.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	911	Private Number	Never
2	Bryan Adams	Cloud #9	Nope
3	Whitney Houston	My Love Is Your Love	Nah
4	Fierce	Dayz Like That	No
5	Kula Shaker	Shower Your Love	Good song but no
6	Pete Heller	Big Love	Not my bag at all
7	Stereophonics	Pick A Part That’s New	Not the single but I had the album
8	Backstreet Boys	I Want It That Way	As if

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002s7dj/top-of-the-pops-14051999

TOTP 07 MAY 1999

Posted on 29 Days Ago by 80stastic

It’s early May 1999 here at TOTP Rewind and that can only mean one thing – the culmination of the football season! Despite only losing three games all season, my beloved Chelsea have blown the league by drawing too many matches and would finish third to a Man United team on their way to an historic treble. However, it was in League Division Three where all the drama was the day after this TOTP aired. Specifically, at Brunton Park, Carlisle where a near legendary game would play out. Carlisle United were fighting a dire relegation battle which, if lost, would condemn them to demotion to non-league football. It would be either them or Scarborough who would fall through the trap door. Carlisle needed a win but with time running out, the score in their game was locked at 1-1. Scarborough’s match had finished and they were safe as things stood but a Carlisle goal would reverse that situation and relegate Scarborough. With just 10 seconds left on the clock, the home team won a corner and Carlisle’s goalkeeper, one Jimmy Glass, was given the signal from his manager to go up the pitch to join in one last attack. Glass was only playing after being loaned from Swindon Town after a Carlisle goalkeeping emergency and this would be the last of three games he ever played for them. As the corner came in, this happened…

…pure, chaotic drama with a fairytale ending (for Carlisle at least). It’s the stuff of legend. However, for Glass, this wouldn’t be the fillip to his career that some might have assumed. There was no big money move to an elite club following his heroics; in fact, Carlisle United didn’t even sign him permanently and he only played a handful of professional games for a couple of clubs before drifting into non-league football and ultimately retiring from the game aged just 27. I wonder if any Glass related parallels can be drawn with the acts on this episode of TOTP?

Our host is Kate Thornton, and just as Jimmy Glass’s time at Carlisle United was coming to an end, this would be her final TOTP appearance. She only got to present ten shows which is a shame I think as she seemed a fairly safe pair of hands. Her first duty on her valedictory programme is to introduce Phats & Small on their fourth appearance on the show with “Turn Around”. There really can’t be anything else to say about this one can there? Well, it was back on TOTP as it had risen from No 8 to No 7 having already peaked at No 2. Yeah, that’s not exactly riveting reading material is it? I did notice that Phats & Small (the blokes on the decks as opposed to the singer) were wearing Skint Records T-shirts despite not being on that label – they were on Multiply, the people who brought us Sash! Skint was the home of Fatboy Slim and was based in Brighton which is where Phats & Small were from hence the connection I’m guessing? Russell Small is a big Brighton fan and they were in the same division as Carlisle United in 1998/99 finishing 17th out of 24, with only seven more points than bottom club Scarborough.

Jimmy Glass moment: You can’t get a bigger ‘turnaround’ moment than a last ditch winner to save your team from relegation can you?

It’s four consecutive appearances for Martine McCutcheon on the show but two of them were while “Perfect Moment” was at No 1 so I can’t argue with that. She was still in the Top 5 by the time of this final outing. Even so, it seems a little bit like overkill to me but then I wasn’t writing a TOTP blog back in 1999 and not watching two shows back to back as per the BBC4 schedule of repeats in 2026 so maybe I wouldn’t have noticed back then. As with Phats & Small, I’m struggling to find anything else to say about this one. Let me trawl the internet for a minute…

*blogger trawls internet*

Oh this is brilliant! No, really. Martine once went on a date with Mick Hucknall. She was very nervous, was drinking continually, hadn’t eaten anything and when she got in a car with him and the engine turned over she spewed all over him! Just fabulous work!

Jimmy Glass moment: Is there a more ‘perfect moment’ in football than Jimmy’s last minute winner?

If any of us thought that The Offspring’s chart topper “Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)” was destined to be a one-off, well we were right and wrong. The US pop-punk rockers never did have another UK No 1 but they came within a whisker of bagging another when follow up “Why Don’t You Get A Job?” debuted at No 2 meaning that they certainly weren’t one-hit wonders. However, avoiding that status didn’t come without criticism. Nobody with even a perfunctory knowledge of The Beatles could listen to “Why Don’t You Get A Job?” and not immediately think “Hang on, that’s “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da”!”. And it was although the lyrics were very different to the Fab Four’s original, detailing two miserable sounding relationships from the point of view of both a man and a woman complaining about the laziness of their partners and their lack of any discernible income. The opening two lines include the word “bitch” which the BBC censors decided to muffle for this TOTP appearance. I don’t think they did that when Meredith Brooks was on the show but then I think the gender of the singer was pivotal there. Given the song that it was based on, “Why Don’t You Get A Job?” was always going to be a catchy tune which certainly didn’t harm its chart chances though Bryan ‘Dexter’ Holland’s strained live vocals in this performance might have adversely affected them. He really couldn’t hit those higher notes. It’s a very scratchy affair altogether.

Of course, Scottish band Marmalade beat The Offspring to it by over 30 years with an actual cover of “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da”!” which went to No 1 in the UK though this little known pop song from the 80s always makes me think that Owen Paul had been listening to The Beatles’ original when he recorded it.

Jimmy Glass moment: When Jimmy’s football career ended, he needed to go and get a conventional job and worked as both an IT salesman and a taxi driver.

With another airing for “No Scrubs” by TLC, it means that three of the first four hits on this show were clocking up their fourth TOTP appearance. Come on Cowey! Sort it out! And no, I don’t care that TLC were up to No 3, their highest position in six weeks. However, the chart trajectory of this single is interesting. A debut at No 7 followed by an immediate drop out of the Top 10 to No 13. An expected descent down the Top 40 failed to materialise as “No Scrubs” lurched back into the Top 10 where it would remain for seven weeks. Even within that time period it moved up and down before finally reaching its peak of No 3 having fallen as low as No 9 the week before. How to explain this? It may be something to do with the delayed release of the its accompanying video. An MTV Award winning, sci-fi themed promo featuring the group in different coloured space suits, was its eventual delivery to video channels linked to its rise up the charts? If so, TOTP clearly didn’t get the memo/video as they stuck to showing that same satellite performance for every one of its four appearances on the show. Am I overstating the importance of this video? Maybe but there is some context to this situation, specifically that the group weren’t allowed into Europe for promotional duties possibly due to Lisa “Left Eye” Lopez’s criminal record following an incident in 1994 when she set fire to her boyfriend’s trainers which led to their mansion burning down.

One more thing, the intro to this one from Kate Thornton is a bit inappropriate. “Now going up the charts, those bad girls from Atlanta. No scrubs, no scrubbers – it’s TLC!”. No scrubbers Kate? And I thought she was a safe pair of hands!

Jimmy Glass moment: “No Scrubs” is from an album called “Fanmail” and I’m sure that Jimmy Glass got some fan mail after his last minute heroics in 1999.

Well, this is a damn shame. Of the three singles released from the sophomore album “100% Colombian” by Fun Lovin’ Criminals, the one which I bought – “Big Night Out” – is the only one that failed to warrant a TOTP appearance. Boo! Not that the two that did make it were worthless – they weren’t – but..you know. Anyway, the third of those releases was “Korean Bodega” which does sound pretty cool compared to most of its chart contemporaries but also very familiar. It’s something about that guitar riff that runs through it. I can’t place which song it reminds me of but it’s certainly recognisable.

Despite it happening in 2021, I’m not sure that I was aware that Huey Morgan had left the band. They are still an ongoing entity but it’s kind of hard to imagine them without their charismatic frontman. The band have released one album since Huey’s departure but continue to perform live.

Jimmy Glass moment: There is a track on the “100% Colombian” album called “All My Time Is Gone” which was so nearly true for Carlisle United that day in 1999 until Jimmy Glass strode forward into the box with ten seconds to go…

It’s the return of Cast next whom we had not seen in the Top 40 for 18 months. Indeed, it had been two years since their last album “Mother Nature Calls” which, though a commercial success, had divided critics. Third album “Magic Hour” therefore had a lot riding on it. The lead single from it was “Beat Mama”, a relentlessly upbeat track with a looped guitar riff and sparse, almost non-specific lyrics. Maybe the latter didn’t matter though as it was all about the feel. I liked it I have to say.

However, when I think about “Beat Mama”, its sound isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. Let me explain. The week that it came out, the shop stereo in the Our Price store I was working in suddenly stopped working one morning. That’s pretty much a disaster for a record shop. As a last resort, we brought down to the shop floor the only thing we had that could play music – a tiny, portable CD player/radio that was in the stock room that staff working in there could listen to. It sounded tinny and pathetic as we opened the doors to the public. The first CD that we put on to play through it? “Beat Mama”. We couldn’t spend the whole day with this as the output for our in-store music so I decided to try and fix the shop stereo’s misfiring speakers. Quite why I thought I had the knowledge to do this I don’t know. Somehow I did get them working again though – it must have been something simple like a loose connection. However, at one point I had the speakers wired up so that two different songs were playing out of them at the same time. How did I manage that? To this day I’m wary of doing anything technical in our house beyond changing a light bulb on account of this.

Jimmy Glass moment: Cast hail from Liverpool. In May 2021, Liverpool FC’s goalkeeper Alisson scored a 95th minute winning goal versus WBA with a header prompting immediate comparisons with Jimmy Glass.

Despite this being its second time on the show, you still couldn’t actually buy “Look At Me” by Geri Halliwell in the shops as it wasn’t released until the Monday after this TOTP aired. The promotion on this one was huge but then it was always going to be. The first official solo single by an (ex-) Spice Girl was big news. After being served up the official promo video on its last outing, we get an exclusive performance of the song this time, again introduced by Geri herself. It’s all very over the top with Halliwell backed by four male dancers on a set that includes an elaborate staircase and chaise longue as props. It all seems a bit forced to me, trying a bit too hard to make it look like Geri was this kooky, zany character that we hadn’t really been aware of before. In the end, all that promotion couldn’t quite deliver the expected and presumably desperately wanted No 1 with “Look At Me” debuting in second place.

*Mel B’s “I Want You Back” had featured Missy Elliott whilst Melanie C had duetted with Bryan Adams on “When You’re Gone” before “Look At Me”.

Jimmy Glass moment: After his legendary winning goal, the whole world was looking at Jimmy.

Westlife remains at No 1 with “Swear It Again” and if that wasn’t annoying enough, for this performance, they’ve ditched the stools I said they always sat on therefore making me look like a lier! Apart from one of them, they’re all dressed in white which was another affectation of theirs but no doubt the next time they’re on, they’ll be dressed as goths just to spite me again! I swear it!

Jimmy Glass moment: Westlife had a No 1 with a cover of ABBA’s “I Have A Dream” and there was no more dream like moment in football than Jimmy Glass’s last second winner.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Phats & Small	Turn Around	I did not
2	Martine McCutcheon	Perfect Moment	No
3	The Offspring	Why Don’t You Get A Job?	Nah
4	TLC	No Scrubs	Nope
5	Fun Lovin’ Criminals	Korean Bodega	Not this one but the one before it
6	Cast	Beat Mama	Good song but no
7	Geri Halliwell	Look At Me	No thanks
8	Westlife	Swear It Again	Never

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002rxqk/top-of-the-pops-07051999

TOTP 30 APR 1999

Posted on March 5 by 80stastic

The day after this TOTP aired, Andrew Motion was announced as the next Poet Laureate in succession to previous incumbent Ted Hughes. His term would last ten years until he handed the baton to Carol Ann Duffy whilst the current Poet Laureate is Simon Armitage. You know what’s coming now…I wonder if the artists on tonight’s show have any connection with that role or poetry in general?

Our host is Jamie Theakston and we begin with last week’s No 1 (of course we do) which has been deposed and is currently No 3 in the charts. There was clearly a lot of belief, willingness and capacity from the management people behind Martine McCutcheon when it came to ensuring her transition from soap darling to pop star. From signing a significant record deal with Virgin, being given the song “Perfect Moment” as her debut single (a song A&R person Cheryl Robson had been sat on for three years) to having an hour-long television documentary about her journey from EastEnders actress to a singer, all the stops were being pulled out to make sure the project was a success. And a success it was. A No 2, platinum selling album, the 14th best selling single of the year and a pair of No 6 hits to follow.

It couldn’t sustain though. Two more albums quickly followed but failed to match the achievements of its predecessor. It seemed that appetite for Marine as a chart frequenter had been satiated. Why? For me, the cause of her commercial decline was that the initial burst of sales came off the back of her association with her EastEnders persona Tiffany. It’s as if people were in some sort of mourning for the death of that character and needed something to buy as a souvenir or keepsake. Then, the strength of her debut hit spilled over into sales for her album and before you knew it, momentum was created and away she went. However, the larger the distance of time that separated Martine from Tiffany, the less the connection between her and the public. That momentum waned until she was just another pop singer. Maybe she should have reactivated her pop career after her star turn in Love Actually when the public fell in love with another of her character portrayals. That didn’t happen and the last album she released came in 2017 which made a respectable No 17 in the charts but there has been nothing from her since…apart from this of course….

Poet Laureate link: “Perfect Moment” was written by Wendy Page and one J. Marr. In his podcast The Poet Laureate Has Gone To His Shed, Simon Armitage spoke to Johnny Marr about his life as a musician. OK, the J. Marr that co-wrote “Perfect Moment” wasn’t the ex-Smiths guitarist but give me a break!

Just like Suede on last week’s show, Texas were also making a bit of a comeback after being away for a couple of years and also like Brett and the boys, they had to make a decision about which musical direction should be part of their return route. Unlike Suede, it seemed to me that they decided to basically just replicate their previous album which had brought them into the mainstream and delivered all that commercial success associated with such a transition. I’m sure the band themselves would be able to point to all sorts of details that spelt out the differential nuances between “White On Blonde” and “The Hush” but to your average pop music consumer, it surely felt like more of the same. Certainly, lead single “In Our Lifetime” retained that radio friendly polish that we’d come to expect from the second coming of the band. What was different though was the fact that this was the first time that the band had not employed an external producer for an album, preferring instead to keep it in house with guitarist Johnny McElhone twiddling the knobs on the mixing desk.

The chart performance of “In Our Lifetime” suggested that the record buying public were more than happy with a healthy helping of what they’d been served up before as its peak of No 4 maintained the band’s run of Top 10 singles by becoming their sixth on the trot. And why not? It’s a perfectly decent rock/pop tune with its strident yet melodic looped guitar hook and ‘wickedy-wick’ sound effect that introduces the chorus plus, of course, Sharleen Spiteri’s smooth vocals. For the moment, Texas were still in the ascendancy and doing nothing wrong at all.

Poet Laureate link: The state of Texas has its own Poet Laureate designation scheme, appointing a new incumbent every one to two years to promote poetry and recognize the literary contributions of Texans.

Fancy a bit of Busta Rhymes? No, me neither but executive producer Chris Cowey did and to be fair, the rapper was at No 5 with his single “What’s It Gonna Be?!” so…At the risk of sounding like my Dad commenting on my musical preferences as a teenager, this was just noise and a horrible one at that. “The mightiest and fastest rapper” ever to appear on the show is how Jamie Theakston describes Rhymes. Well, he perhaps he was but that doesn’t mean he could make a record that was listenable and he didn’t with this track. Even the presence of Janet Jackson couldn’t save it though I’m not sure I could even hear her contribution over all that shouting which seems to be about making his baby’s body wet. Eeuuww! Cowey could at least have shown the video in full (rather than on a big screen in the background) seeing as it was one of the most expensive ever produced at a cost of $2 million. The sound mix was much better on the promo as well with Busta’s rantings toned down more than in this studio performance. Not for me thank you.

Poet Laureate link: Poetry? Busta Rhymes? Yeah, that’s all I’ve got for this one.

Some blatant and shameless self promotion next as the Beeb uses its historic, flagship music show to advertise another of its programmes. If Miami 7 doesn’t ring any bells then the collective noun for its stars certainly will. S Club 7 were put together by pop impresario Simon Fuller when he was left at a loose end after the Spice Girls gave him the boot as their manager and his first action was to put together another pop group but this time he’d recruit more compliant people who he perceived wouldn’t tell him where to get off as his previous charges had.

Despite the fact that the Spice Girls project had turned into a global marketing operation encompassing different media and more merchandising than anyone could possibly want or house, Fuller reckoned there were yet more promotional opportunities to be explored. He envisioned a brand that was cross-media marketable, that could conquer both the music charts and TV ratings. Teaming up with his brother Kim (who wrote the Spice World movie story), they devised the TV show Miami 7 which the BBC picked up and broadcast on their CBBC channel. It was only a month into its run at the point of this TOTP broadcast and so, with show still on our screens, the Beeb indulged in some cross channel promotion and we got to meet the show’s stars in the TOTP backstage area. Although the first S Club 7 single – “Bring It All Back” which also acted as the Miami 7 theme tune – was still a whole five weeks away from release, that didn’t stop us from being given a preview of the video for it which, quelle surprise, also included some clips from the show.

Of course, this whole pop group/TV show wasn’t an original Fuller idea. The Monkees project from the 60s famously got there first but even in the 90s it had been tried with the show No Sweat following the adventures of boy band North & South who would have four Top 40 hits between ‘97 and ‘98. That didn’t stop Miami 7 being a hit though and it would run for four seasons albeit under a different title for each series. Its success is widely acknowledged as being the motivation for bringing the world shows like High School Musical and Glee.

As for “Bring It All Back”, it would top the charts when finally released. An insanely catchy slice of bubblegum pop which inevitably and obviously generated comparisons with The Jackson 5, it also contained one of the greatest key changes in all of pop music history. As we’ll be seeing it another three times in these TOTP repeats I’ll leave it there for now but suffice to say that the S Club story would run for years involving success, heartbreak, solo careers, controversy, a juniors version spin off, splits, reunions and ultimately tragedy. Someone really should make a TV show or movie about it.

Poet Laureate link: Not really though there was a literary club known as Authors‘ Club whose membership included three Poets Laureate – Alfred Austin, John Masefield, and John Betjeman.

From a request to ‘Bring It All Back’ to a plea to “Bring My Family Back” courtesy of Faithless. They did make some dark records didn’t they and this one is no different with Maxi Jazz recounting the tale of a man who grew up in a broken family, whose wife left him with the kids after his infidelity with a work colleague and who slips through the cracks and end up living in a derelict slum and regretting his life decisions. At least, I think that’s what it’s about. Although I wouldn’t describe myself as a fan, I did quite like this. It’s kind of got an hypnotic quality to it which means you can’t help listening despite the grimness and misery of the lyrics. Someone who is a fan is a friend of mine who will become an octogenarian this month proving yet again that age can be just a number when it comes to musical taste.

Poet Laureate link: A genuine connection! Caleb Femi, who was named London’s first Young Poet Laureate (2016–2017), features on the 2020 Faithless album “All Blessed”. He delivers a rap/spoken-word performance on the track “I Need Someone”. The band’s Sister Bliss commented on the collaboration that for the album, they wanted to work with “thoughtful fresh talent” like Femi to honor the high lyrical bar set by their late frontman, Maxi Jazz.

Right what was going on here then? Watching this back without any prior knowledge/information, it looked like an attempt by TOTP executive producer Chris Cowey to really shake the format up which it was I guess but he couldn’t really lay claim to a totally original idea here. So, the dance music continued with the next two hits also coming firmly from that genre but there was a deliberate decision to tie the two together as Jamie Theakston gives them a combined intro – “This is Armand Van Helden versus Fatboy Slim”. We then get a studio performance by the former (featuring guest vocalist Roland Clark up front) and the video for the latter’s latest hit but the two are interspersed with clips of both of them entering a boxing ring. What gives?

Well, I didn’t have a clue so I looked it up and it turns out that Armand van Helden and Fatboy Slim were connected by their 1999 “A Date With Destiny” DJ battles. These high-profile, head-to-head gigs featured them competing in a boxing ring at venues like Brixton Academy. Ah, so that’s where that boxing imagery footage comes from! Basically Cowey just got permission to use it rather than it being anything that he set up himself. The boxing match theme is backed up by the fact that Van Helden’s last hit “You Don’t Know” knocked Fatboy Slim’s “Praise You” off the top spot. There was a rematch when their follow ups (“Flowerz” for Van Helden and “Right Here, Right Now” by Fatboy Slim) were released in the same week. This time it was a knockout victory for the Fatboy with his single landing at No 2 whilst “Flowerz” couldn’t punch its weight and was left floundering at No 18. That’s a pretty decisive result despite Theakston saying in his segue that “Fortunately, there were no judges to pick a winner in this particular heavyweight contest so judge for yourselves”. Well, I think the record buying public were the judges Jamie and they made it very clear who their winner was. To be fair, it was a mismatch as “Flowerz” didn’t pack the same punch as its predecessor and never really gets itself off the canvas and into any sort of rhythm. There was no long lasting grudge held though as the duo reunited for performances at The Warehouse Project in Manchester and Drumsheds in London in November 2024.

Poet Laureate link: Ian Henery, the first ever Poet Laureate for Walsall, hosts a radio show on Black Country Xtra and has specifically named Armand Van Helden as a personal favourite from the golden era of house music.

OK, so. This is actually interesting as we just about see a DJ style fade from the Armand Van Helden tune into the video to “Right Here, Right Now” by Fatboy Slim. Fair play to Chris Cowey whom I’ve given a lot of stick to in this blog but the presentation on these two hits has been clever and effective. This was the fourth single lifted from the album “You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby” and it was yet another banger – Norman Cook really was in the groove here. It’s got the usual samples in it from sources I haven’t a clue about but it also has a sense of foreboding, imbuing the listener with the feeling that they’re about to hear something monumental. Then the Big Beats kick in and you’re off on an aural journey signposted by the creativity of Cook’s imagination.

The video hooks into that idea of a journey by depicting the course of human evolution from a single celled amoeba via a jellyfish, an amphibian, a primate an homo erectus before finally becoming a human. It was supposedly inspired by the 70s French animated educational television series Once Upon A Time…Man which I remember from reruns in the 80s, typically shown mid morning during the Summer holidays. It was a clever way of engaging kids in history and tracked the development of humans from the creation of the Earth through to a prediction up to the year 2150. I liked it as I recall though I’m not sure that I caught all 26 episodes.

Anyway, not long before the end of the “Right Here, Right Now” video, Cook himself pops up in a burger van with a message apologising for not being on the show in person before we return to the promo. I get that Cowey wouldn’t have turned down the chance of using such a piece of VT but it does come across as incongruous and doesn’t really add anything which is a shame. The final transformation sees the now fully developed human being turn into the kid on the cover of the “You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby” album but it must be a lookalike or CGI as Cook was never able to track that person down to pay him some royalties for the use of his image.

Poet Laureate link: As a member of The Housemartins, Cook had a connection to the city of Hull (where I have lived for the past 22 years). The poet Philip Larkin was the Librarian at the University of Hull and he was offered the position of Poet Laureate in 1984 which he declined.

Some things in life are just inexplicable. The Bermuda Triangle, the Great Pyramids of Giza, the England football team’s inability to win a trophy since 1966…and the appeal and success of Westlife. Yes, we’ve arrived at that point I’m afraid. The point where somehow the UK decided that far from having had enough of boy bands littering the charts throughout the 90s, that despite the sea change to the popularity of girl groups in the second half of the decade, and never minding that we’d already had years of one Irish boy band dominating everything…we needed another one! Why for chrissakes? WHY?! I just didn’t get it with this lot. They were so dull and, it seemed to me, inherently a one trick pony. How could anyone distinguish between one overwrought, schmaltzy ballad from another?! They all sounded the same! And not just that, they were all performed the same with those grinning berks sat in a line on stools, sometimes getting up if they had a solo. And yet, they were successful. Incredibly so, breaking chart records at will whilst racking up No 1 after No 1. They had four just in 1999 despite the first one “Swear It Again” – coming with four months of the year gone already. They weren’t even that good looking were they? Given the amount of times they will no doubt appear in these TOTP repeats, I’m leaving it here. For now.

Poet Laureate link: W.B. Yeats who was a Nobel Laureate (an Irish equivalent of a poet laureate) and Westlife share a connection with Sligo with the former famously associated with the town and its landscapes and the latter having grown up there (well, three of them anyway). Because of this shared hometown, Sligo’s tourism and cultural boards often promote the “poetry of Yeats and the music of Westlife”!

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Martine McCutcheon	Perfect Moment	No
2	Texas	In Our Lifetime	Nope
3	Busta Rhymes / Janet Jackson	What’s It Gonna Be?!	Never
4	S Club 7	Bring It All Back	Not likely
5	Faithless	Bring My Family Back	I did not
6	Armand van Helden	Flowerz	Nah
7	Fatboy Slim	Right Here, Right Now	No but I had the album
8	Westlife	Swear It Again	No – I swear!

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002rxqf/top-of-the-pops-30041999